Basketball: Geneva girls stymie Batavia; Geneva boys survive Bulldogs in double OT

Keira McCann knew that Geneva’s last two games against Batavia were a bit rough.

After dropping both games to their heated rival last season, McCann knew that they wanted things to turn things around.

And Friday night, she did just that.

McCann put up 14 points and added five assists, while the Vikings hunkered down on defense to help secure a 42-30 victory over the visiting Bulldogs.

“We put a lot of pieces together that we’ve been working on over the past few weeks,” McCann said. “It all really fell together, especially in that third quarter, and it was really great.”

The Vikings (2-8 overall, 1-3 DuKane) got a lot of their offensive success from behind the 3-point line, making six of 16 shots from behind the arc, with McCann making three of those.

“We’ve been working a lot on getting that spacing big time and we really kept that,” McCann said. “We were confident in our shots, and a lot of girls stepped up and made big shots to build that lead.”

While the offense kept the momentum going, the Vikings’ defense turned into a wall, not allowing anything through the hoop for over 14 minutes of play which spanned from the beginning of the second quarter to the beginning of the fourth. During that time, the Vikings built a four-point lead to as many as 25 points.

“We’re pretty good defensively, that’s never been our issue so far this year,” Vikings coach Sarah Meadows said. “Our kids did an awesome job on the defensive side. Even if we didn’t get a steal, we were getting deflections, and our kids were active up there.”

A big part of that disrupting effort was sophomore Emma Peterson, who used all of her 6-foot frame to come away with five steals and four blocks to go alongside nine points on offense.

“She’s very long, and she got in a perfect spot up on the diamond,” Meadows said. “We’ve been telling her to be more aggressive and play harder, and she really did that. She had a very solid game for us.”

The defense proved to be something the Bulldogs (2-9, 1-3) struggled to move through, especially in the second and third quarters. After a basket from senior Ali Thomas with six minutes left in the second quarter to make it 16-12, Batavia didn’t score again until Thomas hit a free throw with seven minutes left in the game.

“There were just a lot of things that didn’t go well in the middle there,” Bulldogs coach Kevin Jensen said. “But Ali Thomas was a difference-making player for us, and she was the most consistent piece for us the entire game, even when everyone knew we were going for her.”

Thomas finished the game with a career-high 19 points and seven rebounds for the Bulldogs. She also had every single point for Batavia up until a made free-throw from senior Payton Haslett with 6:30 left in the contest.

“As far as I’m concerned, she exceeded every single expectation I would have had for her in this game,” Jensen said. “She did an awesome job rebounding, playing defense, being aggressive on offense. She did everything she could have for us.”

Boys game: Nathan Palmer just wanted his first rendition of the Batavia- Geneva rivalry game to come to an end.

After his potential game-winning shot at the end of overtime went wide-right, the Geneva senior found himself with another opportunity to put the game to rest after getting sent to the free-throw line with 1.7 seconds left in the tied game.

And this time? He really didn’t want to miss.

“I really knew I needed to end it right there,” Palmer said. “When I first drove in, I just wanted to finish it there, and then I got the foul, I knew I had to take my time at the free-throw line. I didn’t want to be the reason why we fell short.”

And much like a majority of his shots in the second half, he didn’t miss.

Palmer sunk his first free throw to put Geneva ahead, and also made the second. The Vikings stood tall on the final long heave to secure a 55-53 victory in double overtime over the Bulldogs.

“That was two really good teams going at it in that game,” Vikings coach Scott Hennig said. “I’m super proud of them. We made some mistakes, they made some mistakes. But this is kind of what you expect in this rivalry game in pretty much any sport.”

After the Vikings (8-0 overall, 4-0 DuKane) entered halftime trailing 23-22 and only having five points to his name, Palmer said that he and the team knew that they were definitely in need of a little pick-me-up to get back into the driver’s seat.

“We just weren’t doing our jobs well at the start and we needed to run a better offense,” Palmer said. “But I just felt my rhythm and knew I had to get going.”

And he went going all right. Palmer finished with 17 points across the second half and both overtimes, finishing with a game-high 22 points.

“He was just doing what he does and playing downhill basketball,” Hennig said. “He’s got really good feet, and he’s been one of the best for us.”

Geneva started off the game firing off from behind the 3-point line, especially with senior guard Gabe Jensen (18 points). But even after struggling from beyond the arc, the senior, playing in his fifth varsity rivalry game, didn’t flinch, knocking down his sixth 3-pointer of the night to start the second overtime.

“It just comes with the experience of not wavering,” Jensen said. “I had a few mistakes there in overtime and regulation, and I just moved past those onto the next play to try and come up big.”

Geneva finished the night knocking down 10 3-pointers, including a half-court, buzzer-beating shot to end the first quarter.

“We had a lot of veteran guys step up big,” Hennig said. “They’re just kicking butt on the court.”

It was a more-than courageous effort from the Bulldogs (2-5, 1-3) in the loss. Senior Evan Blankenship tied the game at 45-45 with 11 seconds remaining in regulation to force the game to overtime. He also had the Bulldog’s lone points in the first overtime, a 3-pointer that tied the game at 48-48.

“He had a couple of big shots for us in that game,” Bulldogs coach Jim Nazos said. “He’s starting to do a lot of things for us off of the bench.”

The Bulldogs ended the night trailing by no more than six points throughout the game. Senior Joe Reid led the team with 18 points off of five 3-pointers. Blankenship added 14 and eight rebounds, while senior Xavier Justice dished out eight assists.

“I could not be more proud of these guys,” Nazos said. “I think both teams competed their butts off. We’re going in a good direction, there’s extreme optimism for us as a team. And I think we just got to a point where we just let action happen and saw what shots we could get.”