Geneva smothers Lake Park

It didn't take long for Geneva to get back to its high-scoring ways.

Seventeen minutes, 35 seconds to be exact.

Coming off a rare home loss when they scored 43 points against Waubonsie Valley, the No. 2 seeded Vikings put their 43rd point on the board early in the third quarter on their way to a 55-40 win over No. 13 Lake Park on Tuesday in the Class 4A Geneva regional semifinals.

Geneva (23-5) advances to Thursday's championship game against No. 7 Elk Grove, a 39-28 winner over Batavia.

The Vikings got back to their up-tempo ways against the Lancers. They shot 53 percent from the field in the first half (17 of 32) before coach Sarah Meadows went to her bench for most of the second half.

"I think we calmed down a little," said Geneva sophomore guard Morgan Seberger who scored all 14 of her points in the first half. "We felt that game (Waubonsie) was harder, they were tougher. We needed to regroup and get back to playing as a team and doing what we do best."

The Vikings also were active on the defensive end forcing 17 first-half turnovers while holding Lake Park (10-18) to 33 percent shooting (6 of 18).

"We knew they pressure all the time," Lake Park coach Andrea Miller said. "We knew we had to handle it better and we just had too many turnovers there and couldn't get in our offense and they are coming at you, coming at you. Second half I thought we came out a little better but first half they just took us out of it."

Alexis Hahn, who led Lake Park in Monday's win over Glenbard East with 20 points, staked the Lancers to an early lead with a 3 on their first possession. She drove for another score to make it 5-3 which turned out to be the Lancers' last lead of the game.

Rachel Hinchman's bucket tied the game and ignited a 12-0 Geneva run. Michaela Loebel followed with a steal she took in for a layup, and Miller called timeout with 6:07 left in the opening quarter.

The Vikings kept the pressure on, grabbing their first double-digit lead at 15-5 on Sami Pawlak's steal and bucket. Seberger capped the first quarter by banking in a long 3 to make it 23-9, the second of her two first-quarter 3s.

"She does it well," Meadows said. "She can step up and hit those shots and if she gets the first one or two to go it's going to be a good night for her."

Geneva also closed the second quarter with a flurry. In the final minute Erin Kozlow hit a short baseline jumper, Seberger followed with a score and Hinchman beat the buzzer splitting the Lake Park defense for a lay-in putting Geneva up 40-19 at halftime.

Meadows went to her bench early in both the third and fourth quarters. The Vikings grabbed their biggest lead at 53-26 on freshman Abby Novak's putback before the Lancers made the final margin closer with a 13-0 run keyed by three 3s from Hahn.

Hahn led all scorers with 20 points. Alyssa Hernandez added 8 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.

"It (the season) was a little disappointing but I felt like every game we battled and never gave up," Miller said. "We did a lot of good things throughout the season unfortunately the wins don't quite show it. I'm proud of them, proud of the seniors, they continued to play hard."

Hinchman tied Seberger with 14 points for Geneva and also had 6 of the team's 21 steals. Geneva outrebounded Lake Park 38-27 paced by Kelly Gordon's 8 and 7 each from Novak and Pawlak.

"We were playing more as a team," Seberger said. "I think since we are going into regionals we need to play as a team to get further. Just passing the ball, looking for the open girl, waiting for the right shot to be open."

Meadows said she expects an athletic Elk Grove (14-13) team in Thursday's championship. The teams last played in the 2009 sectional semifinals, a tight game late into the fourth quarter before the undefeated Vikings pulled away on their run to the state tournament.

"Those middle seeds make me nervous," Meadows said. "This is do or die. Every game you have to bring it.

"We looked much more aggressive. I thought we played really well together. We passed the ball well, had some nice steals and threw the ball up court to the open kid."