Geneva bounces back with win over WW South

Geneva turned the ball over on eight of its first nine possession Saturday night at the Benet/Naperville North Holiday Tournament.

Then the Vikings turned things around.

Geneva overcame a rough start to post a 65-58 victory against Wheaton Warrenville South in Lisle and advance to the tournament semifinals next week.

"We had so many turnovers the first half, and that's one of our goals, to limit all of our turnovers," Vikings junior Sami Pawlak said. "So once we started to limit that and calm down, that's when we started to play together."

"We got off to a great start," WW South coach Rob Kroehnke said. "We kind of frustrated them a little bit and did well on both the offensive and defensive ends. And then we were talking about this before the game: You can't let a good team like this make runs."

The Tigers (10-2) took a 12-4 lead early and led 16-12 after one quarter. The Vikings (11-1) rallied to grab a 19-18 lead early in the second quarter and never trailed again.

"We came out slow and not as well as we could've been, but we picked it up in the second half," Pawlak said. "We were making more of our shots. We took more of the shots we wanted, instead of the first shot we had. Like Rachel (Hinchman) hit those two 3s (in the third quarter), which helped us a ton."

"We keep coming out so soft," Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. "At halftime we said we're not playing Geneva basketball. They responded a little bit in the second quarter, then the third quarter and the fourth quarter we kind of pulled out."

Geneva got 20 points off the bench from Stevie Fanale and Kelly Gordon, in part because of Ashley Santos' foul trouble. Santos picked up her fourth foul with 5:50 left in the third quarter and Geneva leading 35-33, but the Vikings extended their lead, going up 45-35 on a Morgan Seberger 5-foot jumper with 2:12 to go in the period.

"Their kids came in and executed very well," Kroehnke said. "We had our opportunities. We just couldn't get over that hump. We cut back down close again and then they came back. It just seemed like they made those little mini-runs at times that stopped us from getting done what we needed to get done. They're a good team, and hopefully we get a chance to see them come sectional time."

Santos fouled out with 4:36 left in the game and the Vikings up by 6 points, but again the Vikings pushed the lead up to double digits.

"That's good for us and good for our team to play like that," Meadows said. "... (Gordon) played good, Stevie played awesome. Rachel Hinchman, what a leader she was. She's so quiet, but she plays loudly. She did a great job."

Gordon, Pawlak and Hinchman each scored 13 points, and Santos added 11. Gordon added 8 rebounds, while Pawlak had 7 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 blocked shots.

Kasey Gassensmith led WW South with 16 points, and Meghan Waldron scored 15 and added 6 rebounds.