Batavia upends Geneva

Batavia's boys basketball team only managed to make one basket in the fourth quarter of Friday night's Upstate Eight Conference River Division contest against visiting Geneva.

However, it was a big one.

Senior guard Canaan Coffey, who had missed his previous 9 field-goal attempts, connected on an NBA-range 3-pointer from well beyond the top of the key with 54 seconds remaining to give the Bulldogs (6-3, 4-0) a 44-43 lead.

Two free throws from Kamontez Thomas and Carter Eberhardt (6 points, 6 rebounds) in the final 34 seconds sealed the Bulldogs' 48-43 victory.

“If you're not hitting shots, you've got to keep shooting to find that rhythm,” said Coffey, who finished with 8 points on 2-for-11 shooting from the field.

“Shooters when they're open, they take the next shot and always believe they're going it,” said Bulldogs coach Jim Nazos. “He was 1-for-10 at that point but anytime he has an open shot he has the green light to shoot it whenever he wants.”

Hounded throughout the night by the Vikings' Matt Johnston (9 points) and Sean Chambers, Coffey came through at the right time.

“If we had won this game, the MVPs would've been Chambers and Johnston because they literally shut down Coffey,” said Geneva coach Phil Ralston. “It shows you how good Coffey is. If you give him the room, he's going to bury you and he did it tonight.”

Trailing 38-33 after 3 quarters, the Vikings (7-2, 1-2), playing without injured leading scorer Bennett Fuzak, enjoyed a 10-0 run during the first 3-plus minutes of the fourth quarter to grab their largest lead of the night at 43-38.

Back-to-back 3-point plays from Chambers and Jordan Vedder (11 points) fueled the Vikings' surge.

Geneva, however, was held scoreless for the final 4:17 as the Bulldogs finished the game with a 10-0 run of their own.

“From the 3 ½-minute mark, I thought we had to be perfect on every single possession and we just about were,” said Nazos. “We did a really good job of keeping our composure when we were down five.

“After leading the whole game and having them go up like that, it is a little bit of a downer but I think we've got a lot of mentally tough players.”

None more so than Coffey, who helped the Bulldogs end a 4-game losing streak to Geneva dating back to January of 2013.

“I'm so proud of the work ethic we put into this game,” said Coffey. “It was a huge win for us. It's awesome especially (being my) senior year at home.”

John Fitch scored a game-high 15 points for the Bulldogs while Colin Cheaney came off the bench to add 13 points, all in the first half.

Dom Navigato added 10 points for Geneva.

“We had them right where we wanted them,” said Ralston. “I think it came down to we just didn't impose our will upon them at the end.”