Geneva routs Batavia behind Yelle and Santos
The final Geneva possession of the first half offered Ashley Santos' defining moment during the Vikings' one-sided victory Batavia Thursday night.
The Vikings' junior swiped a pass and went nearly coast-to-coast, dribbling behind her back in traffic as she approached her basket for an easy bucket in the Vikings' 67-32 Upstate Eight River girls basketball game victory.
“It was just something that I did,” Santos said of her crowd-gasping dribble maneuver. “It just kind of came to me. I knew that as a team we would be fired up to get back on track to winning.”
After Montini snapped the Vikings' 57-game regular-season winning streak over Thanksgiving, St. Charles North handed Geneva a rare consecutive defeat on Tuesday.
But it was all Geneva from the start in Batavia during the schools' first game as the newest members of the Upstate Eight.
Santos and Kat Yelle, the Vikings' Ohio-bound three-year starting guard who led all players with 19 points, combined for 15 points in the opening quarter.
Batavia (1-7, 0-1) was competitive early behind Tamir Norville, but the Vikings assumed command in the second quarter.
With the Bulldogs managing only 3-pointers from Norville and Miranda Grizaffi in the second, Geneva (4-2, 2-1) quadrupled the Bulldogs' output with a 24-point explosion to take a resounding 44-17 lead into the intermission.
It rendered the second half between the renowned rivals virtually academic.
“I don't think the two (straight) losses motivated Geneva even more,” Batavia coach Tim DeBruycker said. “It's Batavia-Geneva. It's been a rivalry since I was in high school. They wanted to show that they were the better team.”
The Geneva spread was 56-25 entering the fourth quarter, enabling acting coach Tim Pease to empty the bench.
Eleven players in all would score for Geneva.
Senior Andrea Connolly scored 3 points and grabbled 4 rebounds during her fourth-quarter stint.
“Everyone on the bench who played scored,” said Connolly, who later added that limited playing time was inconsequential to her in the wake of the Vikings' success.
“We're not used to (losing),” Connolly said. “(Losing twice in the regular season) was kind of like a wakeup call.”
Katelyn Allen was the third Geneva player in double digits with 11 points. Reserves Dori Rogers and Stephanie Sharpe both added fourth-quarter field goals for the team.
Alison Connolly hit a jumper from the wing as time expired to put the exclamation point on the Vikings' big win.
“I thought everyone who played made contributions in their own way,” Pease said.
Norville had 9 points all in the first half to lead Batavia, which also received eight from Grizaffi.
Starting guard Sami Villarreal missed the game with a hamstring injury.
“She is day-to-day,” DeBruycker said.