DeKalb drops Geneva in OT
Geneva probably couldn’t get out of the Benet gym fast enough Friday.
The fifth-ranked Vikings, three-time defending champions of the Benet/Naperville Tournament, lost their third game in Lisle in eight days, this time 56-48 to DeKalb in overtime.
Geneva (11-3) is off until Jan. 4, when it hosts rival Batavia. Perhaps now is a good time for a break.
“There is something missing,” said Ashley Santos, who had 13 points and 9 rebounds Friday. “We all need to regroup and find it, because we’re way better than this.”
Geneva, down 44-40 with under two minutes left, forced overtime on Rachel Hinchman’s 3-pointer with 11 seconds left.
But DeKalb’s Taylor White, who scored 27 points, hit her sixth 3-pointer on the Barbs’ first possession of overtime and DeKalb (12-3) never trailed in the extra session.
Geneva led 19-18 after a sluggish first half, before DeKalb got its biggest lead at 28-22 on a White 3-pointer. The teams were tied 32-32 after three quarters, the fourth quarter a seee-saw affair.
“We need to work on our mental attitude,” Santos said. “We were flat tonight and we need to come out ready to go. We’ll learn from this.”
Geneva’s Sarah Meadows, whose team won its first 10 games in her first year on the sidelines, sounded like a coach looking for her team from November and early December.
“Terrible,” she said. “I really don’t know what to say. We’re just choosing not to play in the first half. We can’t continue to do that. We’re just not playing together, we gotta regroup the first of the year and play like we did at the beginning of the season.”
Hinchman scored 10 points and Sami Pawlak had 8 points and 9 rebounds for Geneva, which only managed 19 points in the first half. Slow starts have plagued Geneva of late.
“We need to get back to our halfcourt sets,” Meadows said. “We’re getting away from that. That first half, it seemed like whoever caught it it was like a black hole. We’re not playing team basketball.”
The Vikings forced 27 turnovers, but didn’t cash in on those opportunities enough — another area Meadows stressed they need to get back to. Geneva’s diamond pressure was much more effective than its man-to-man.
“In our man-to-man, we’re not having ball pressure,” Meadows said. “We got to get back to playing hard-nosed basketball. That’s what we’re best at. When we get steals and scores, we get momentum off of that. We’re not doing that right now. It stinks — this tournament has been terrible for us. Not good.”