Geneva blows out Larkin
Museum lovers would appreciate the Geneva boys basketball team, whose traveling exhibit “The Lost Art of Cutting Without the Basketball” made a stop at Larkin Friday.
The Royals held VIP tickets, watching from inside the velvet ropes as the Vikings scored layups off back cuts, cuts through the lane and cuts off ball screens throughout the lopsided first half of an eventual 69-50 Upstate Eight River blowout.
“We keep swinging it until we find the open shot,” said Geneva senior guard Phil Lorenz, whose kickout pass to senior guard Brendan Leahy for a 3-ponter gave the Vikings the lead for good in the first quarter, 12-9.
Multiple Vikings shared in the act of sharing the ball in the first half. Senior Mark Becker scored on a smart feed from 6-5 junior Connor Chapman, senior Drew White notched a layup after a diagonal pass from Lorenz, senior guard Ryan Willing spotted Leahy for a basket and a 22-12 lead, and Willing’s snappy assist to a cutting White made it 34-18.
Geneva (8-6, 3-1) took a 37-18 to the locker room at halftime, thanks to a 3-pointer in the waning seconds by junior Matt Trimble, set up by an assist from senior Ben Rodgers. That field goal allowed the Vikings to finish 8 of 8 from the field in the second quarter.
“Part of it was that they were overplaying so much that we had to look at back cuts and look at backdoor opportunities,” Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. “And they were there. What I liked about our kids in this game is we were patient. We hit the open man, we didn’t force shots. We took high-percentage shots for us.”
The Vikings shot 25 of 38 from the field as a result (65.8 percent) even though the Royals knew what was coming.
“We practiced this week against their offense, but (the scout team) would only run Geneva’s offense for about 10 seconds,” Larkin guard Derrick Streety said. “When it got down to it (Geneva) ran their offense out on the court for about 30 to 40 seconds and we’d just get distracted. They were patient.”
“We didn’t do a good enough job of preparing them and they didn’t do a good enough job executing,” said Larkin coach Deryn Carter, whose team slipped to 8-6, 1-2. “It was a failure on all parts of the program tonight.”
Geneva’s lead ballooned to 26 points early in the third quarter before Larkin responded with a 13-3 run to pull within 52-38 with 6:08 left in the game. The Vikings staved off any thoughts of a comeback by sinking 9 of 13 free throws in the fourth quarter, part of a 16-of-22 performance from the line overall.
Ten Vikings cracked the scoring column for balanced Geneva, eight in the first quarter alone, led by Leahy (12 points), Willing (11), Lorenz (10) and White (8).
Junior guard Quantice Hunter led Larkin with 10 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, and senior co-captain Ian Fluhler finished with 9 points for the Royals.
Geneva is idle until a nonconference road game next Saturday at St. Viator.
Larkin gets back in the action Wednesday at Elgin in the first of two meetings between the crosstown rivals. The Royals have some regrouping to do before they take on the Maroons (13-1).
“Thankfully, we have got four days to try to get there,” Carter said. “And if we don’t, the result will be the same, plain and simple.”