Navigato breaks Geneva's career scoring record
At the 2:45 mark of the second quarter against Elgin on Friday night, Nate Navigato became the highest scorer in Geneva basketball history - and he did it with an exclamation point.
Navigato entered the game needing only 9 points to top Haskell Tison's 54-year old record of 1,588 points during a career from 1959 through 1961.
Cutting off a screen and powering down the lane, Navigato rose up for a resounding slam dunk for his 9th and 10th points of the night to top the record.
As if becoming the most prolific scorer at a school with 100-plus years of basketball records wasn't enough, Navigato and his teammates locked up a share of the Upstate Eight Conference River Division with a 54-44 victory.
Geneva (25-2, 11-1) easily rolled to its 16th straight victory, needing only a win next Wednesday at Larkin to claim sole possession of its first Upstate Eight title.
"It is a complete honor to get this record and a credit to my teammates and coaches of the past three years," Navigato said after getting postgame recognition at half-court with Haskell Tison's brother, Al Tison, who came in from Florida to watch the game. Haskell Tison, who lives in North Carolina, could not attend.
"As I came off the screen, the lane opened, I kind of hesitated, then saw an opening and just hammered it," the 6-7 Navigato said of his record-breaking slam.
"But this isn't over," Navigato added. "We have one game left and then the playoffs, and we want to make a deep run."
No matter what happens next week, the Vikings will enter postseason play with one of the best records in school history. The current 25-2 mark ties others to reach that mark, putting it only behind the 1963 state quarterfinal squad that went 30-3 during the final season for legendary coach Mel Johnson, who was suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease.
"What a special kid," Geneva coach Phil Ralston said of Navigato. "We told him he could play the second half, but he said no, to let the other kids play."
Ralston said he'll always remember Navigato's first basket of his career, a three-point buzzer beater to win a game, and the slam dunk to break the record.
"Nate has always been one to have statements throughout his career and for him to break it on the dunk, I thought that was something special," Ralston said.
Navigato played only half of this Senior Night game, but his 10 points were enough for a team high, while also providing a perfect sampling of what he has brought to the Geneva basketball table in three seasons.
Navigato hit a running floater and a power drive to the basket in the first quarter to help Geneva jump to a 19-6 lead. He followed that up with a post-up move on the blocks and a nifty left-handed, driving layup in the second quarter before blasting down his dunk. The only thing missing was a three-pointer, but he already holds the school record for those, in addition to assists, blocks and steals.
The Vikings led 35-12 at halftime and Elgin (6-21, 2-11) tightened the final score by posting a 20-6 edge in the fourth quarter. The Maroons, who have had plenty of their own basketball glory in the past, continued a challenging year in losing for the 14th time in their last 15 games.
"We have a bunch of good athletes who are not very fundamentally sound," said Elgin coach Mike Sitter. "In the second half we played mostly kids. We have three sophomores up and we gave them a lot of minutes."
The Maroons got off to a bad start and couldn't regroup. "In the first half we got the ball in the lane where we wanted it, but couldn't make the shots," Sitter added.
Elgin point guard Desmond Douglas had three treys in compiling a game-high 16 points, while sophomore Tim Wolf added 12 points.
Geneva had four players - Chandler Fuzak, Pace Temple, Daniel Santacaterina and Michael Landi - who each scored 6 points.
Navigato and Stephen Moyer each corralled five rebounds to help Geneva turn in a whopping 30-12 edge on the boards.