Geneva rolls by St. Charles N.
Though Rachel Hinchman had not played in the Mack Olson gym since her sophomore year, you couldn’t blame the Geneva senior guard for wanting a few more on the schedule.
Her coach Sarah Meadows might agree after watching her team blitz St. Charles North with a 14-0 run early in the first quarter. Hinchman scored 14 of her game-high 20 points in the opening 8 minutes as the Vikings opened up a 28-point halftime lead and then substituted liberally in a 64-38 victory.
With the wrestling team holding their annual Newbill Invitational in the main gym, the Vikings went old school with the pep band and packed-in crowd creating a lively atmosphere in their Mack Olson gym.
“It was different for us but with the band and all the fans there it helped get us pumped up,” said Hinchman, who missed her career-high by 2 points and like the rest of the Geneva starters sat out the final 12 minutes.
The win completes Geneva’s first half of Upstate Conference River Division play at 6-0, no win by fewer than 15 points. Geneva improved to 14-3 overall while St. Charles North (5-13, 4-2) dropped into a tie for second in the conference.
“I love the Mack Olson gym, that was awesome,” Meadows said. “And you’ve got the band today. That was cool. Like everybody is on top of the gym. It’s fun.”
After a slow start Friday when the Vikings turned the ball over 14 times in the first half and came from 2 down at halftime to beat Streamwood, Meadows switched from their normal man press to a diamond press. The result was 12 first-quarter turnovers for St. Charles North who despite shooting 71 percent from the field in the quarter trailed 22-11 because of all the miscues that led to easy Geneva baskets.
Ashley Santos, before missing much of the first half with 3 fouls, started the game with 2 steals that she fed to Hinchman for layups. Sami Pawlak (13 points) led the way defensively with 5 steals in the quarter while Hinchman connected on a pair of 3s from the outside to go with all the buckets she picked up in transition.
North Stars junior Alex Silverman connected on a jumper with 2:23 left in the first quarter to finally stop — temporarily — the bleeding for the North Stars who trailed 18-3 at the time.
“Obviously Geneva is known for their pressure and they have a lot of returners and a lot of talent,” North Stars coach Colleen Brennan said. “When we turn the ball over in the half court that’s a quick athletic team and that’s 3-on-1 and that’s two points quick.”
Meadows said she was pleased with how the Vikings executed the diamond. She said she wants to work on it in practice more transitioning into a 2-3 zone before she uses the press in the future.
“We were just looking for a little faster start and it worked,” Meadows said. “We just got a ton of steals. We got a lot of our offense off our defense and that’s what we want to do.”
Reserves Stevie Fanale and Kelly Gordon helped the Vikings keep the pressure up in the second quarter. The two combined for 11 of their 15 points in the first half as Geneva outscored St. Charles North 24-7 in the second quarter to lead 46-18 at halftime.
Santos didn’t score in the first half but quickly connected on 3 jumpers in the third quarter. Meadows pulled her starters with a 54-22 lead and 3:54 left in the third quarter as the Vikings completed a 3-0 week to start 2012 after a rough finish to 2011.
“Today we came out from the very beginning,” Hinchman said. “We’ve picked it up a lot. After our three losses (at the Benet/Naperville North tournament) we have come back harder because we know how it feels to lose and we don’t like that feeling so we are just coming to play now. Everyone on our team contributes a lot and we have a lot of all-around good players so it’s not like we have to rely on one or two people.”
Both coaches liked what they saw from their benches over the final quarter and a half. Allison Wright blocked a shot and joined Erin Kozlow and Kelly Sharpe scoring for Geneva.
“Those kids are working just as hard as everybody else,” Meadows said. “And they played good.”
St. Charles North, who was led by Silverman’s 6 points, outscored Geneva 14-4 in the fourth quarter. Reserves Cyppie Estrada and Lauren Durocher both scored 5 points.
“We did do some good things,” Brennan said. “Everyone played on our team a lot and there were a lot of kids showing good skills and improvement. The kids on the bench who came out continued to cheer each other on and didn’t check out.”