Geneva strikes fast, puts away Streamwood
Playing Streamwood for the second time in 8 days, Geneva girls basketball coach Sarah Meadows wanted her team to come out and "send a statement" Friday night.
The Sabres (8-9, 4-3) received the message loud and clear.
Ashley Santos (17 points) and Sami Pawlak (10 points) combined for 11 points during a 16-0 second-quarter tear that helped push the Vikings to a 68-42 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory in Geneva.
"When we played them (the Sabres) last week, we were down two at halftime," said Meadows. "We came back and won (69-45) but I didn't want that same thing happening again. We talked about that before the game. That was one of our big challenges to come out ready."
Ready they were, as Kelly Gordon's three-point play capped a 21-6 second-quarter surge that enabled the Vikings to build a 43-19 halftime advantage.
"We knew we had to start out hard and keep the momentum going," said Santos, who made 8 of her 13 field-goal attempts, including the last 6 in a row during the middle 2 quarters.
Santos felt the Vikings' familiarity with Streamwood was a definite plus.
"I think it's easier for us to play a team we have already played before because we know who their main people are and what type of defense they're going to play," added Santos, who received plenty of help from her teammates.
Rachel Hinchman and Michaela Loebel added 9 and 7 points, respectively, while sophomore Morgan Seberger spearheaded a strong bench contribution with 6 points on a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter.
Meadows liked her team's unselfishness.
"We had 22 assists," said the coach. "That's a huge stat. When we're playing together like that, good things happen for us. We can go to the bench and we don't lose a lot. Those kids come in, they have confidence and they play well."
Jessica Cerda had 17 points to pace the short-handed Sabres, who committed 16 first-half turnovers.
"They played a great second quarter and we struggled to make shots," said Sabres coach George Rosner. "We're really short on bodies right now so I can't rotate. We started the game with eight players and had two get hurt. That's not good."
Deja Moore added 9 points and 7 rebounds, while Hannah McGlone had 6 points and a game-high 14 rebounds for Streamwood.
"They're talented and they're deep," Rosner said of the Vikings. "They didn't shoot the ball like this at our place. When you're on, you can almost put up any kind of shot because you're confident."
Geneva will take on unbeaten Lincoln-Way East today at the McDonald's Shootout in Villa Park.
"It'll be a good challenge," said Meadows. "We had a little fallout at Christmas (losing 3 games) so this is a big game for us to prove a point to everybody that we're for real."
"We're up for it," added Santos. "We're ready."