Geneva frustrates St. Charles North
However much more jumbled the Upstate Eight Conference River Division standings became following Geneva's 53-42 win over St. Charles North Friday night was nothing compared to how suffocating the Vikings played defense throughout that victory.
It wasn't just that Geneva held the North Stars to 37 percent shooting (16 of 43). Or that they limited them to 42 points, St. Charles North's lowest total in 17 games dating back to Dec. 10 against Elgin.
It was how they did it, taking St. Charles North out of its game and out of everything that had been working so well in its 4-game winning streak. Geneva's unique box-and-one defense has made opponents look out of sync many times before, and Friday it was Mark Becker and Phil Lorenz filling in for the injured Ben Rogers and making life miserable for St. Charles North.
"Our game plan going in was to match their physicalness on the inside and really work hard on the defensive end and let the offense take care of itself," Geneva senior Brendan Leahy said.
Geneva (12-8, 6-2), the North Stars (11-3, 7-3) and St. Charles East (12-8, 7-3) are tied for the conference lead with the Vikings a game up in the loss column.
"The only reason we are able to come out with a win tonight is we had them play our game," Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. "We are not a team that can run up and down the floor with them, they are far better than we are. So the only chance we really have is make sure we slow them down and force them to try to work the ball and take tough shots."
The Vikings did just that. Geneva frustrated the North Stars all night, culminating in a double technical foul when star junior Quinten Payne and Geneva's John Swiderski exchanged shoves late in the fourth quarter. The play also went down as the fifth foul for Payne, ending the Loyola recruit's night with 4 points.
"They were physical with Quinten all night," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "He got frustrated with them having their hands on him all night and every chance they got they touched him whether it was an elbow here or a shoulder there or a hip there. You have to play through it and trust your teammates in those situations. I think Quinten learned a great lesson tonight as far as trying to defeat them and their tactics by finding open people or scoring the ball as opposed to pushing back."
Payne picked up his second foul with 4:12 left in the first quarter and the North Stars up 11-4. He didn't play again in the first half.
In the third quarter Payne missed the final 3:52 after Leahy drew a charge for Payne's third foul. Geneva led 34-32 going to the fourth quarter and at that point the Vikings had outscored the North Stars 26-12 with Payne on the bench but had been outscored 20-8 with Payne playing.
The other half of the North Stars' 1-2 punch, Kyle Nelson, did his best to make up for Payne's foul trouble finishing with 21 points half of his team's total. But even Nelson took a beating from constant attention inside led by 6-foot-5 Connor Chapman.
"We knew him (Nelson) and Payne were their leading scorers and if we wanted any chance to beat them we would have to shut them down," Chapman said. "I just tried to play real physical with him (Nelson). You can't completely shut him down but I think we did a pretty good job of frustrating both of them."
Especially in the fourth quarter. With the game tied 34-34, Geneva broke the game open behind Chapman. He swished a 16-foot jumper with 6:10 remaining to put the Vikings ahead for good, the start of a 12-0 spree that included two more Chapman buckets on impressive moves down low plus a pair of Chapman assists back out for Leahy and Swiderski jumpers.
Ryan Willing, returning from an ankle injury, added a steal and layup while the North Stars went scoreless in that stretch until Payne's drive with 2:11 left in the game and the Vikings up 48-38.
"I thought our player of the game was Chapman," Ralston said. "What a great job he did on Nelson. It was physical both ways and Chap didn't back down. I thought he did a good job going toe-to-toe with a really good basketball player (Nelson)."
Leahy provided the early spark Geneva needed to dig out of a 9-2 hole, scoring 11 points in the first quarter including a pair of putbacks.
He finished with 17 points, Willing scored 9 and Chapman and Swiderski both had 8.
"They (St. Charles North) were hitting shots, a lot of them, we didn't want to fall behind too much," Leahy said. "I was taking what the defense gave me. My teammates were feeding me too. It definitely was a key to make sure we got off to a good start so we could get the confidence we could play with them."
Geneva went 10 of 10 at the line in the first half to take a 27-23 halftime lead. The Vikings finished 17 of 20 to the North Stars' 5 of 7. They also outrebounded the North Stars 25-22 and shot nearly 50 percent (17 of 35) from the field.
St. Charles North won't have to wait long to try to get even. They host the Vikings next Saturday, the second of a big rivalry week that begins Wednesday against St. Charles East.
Tony Neari followed Nelson's 21 points and 3 blocks with 6 points for the North Stars his team's first 6 points of the game on two 3-pointers.
"That is about as bad as you can play," Poulin said. "They played harder, they played smarter they played more together. We played individually."