Another year, another title for Geneva

For the third consecutive year, the Geneva girls basketball team won their own Thanksgiving tournament.

For the third consecutive year, Taylor Whitley has won the Most Valuable Player honor.

This year, the Vikings and Whitley did it when they beat Providence, 65-46, behind her game-high 19 points and 5 assists in the championship game Saturday.

"Incredibly solid," Geneva coach Gina Nolan said on Whitley, a three-year starting junior. "She did so many things on the defensive end that was solid for us and as always, she's a threat on the offensive end."

Geneva is a perfect 4-0 this season.

"We are liking this so far," Whitley said.

Providence and Geneva exchanged leads for most of the first quarter until the Vikings capped the quarter on a 6-0 run, led by a pair of putbacks from Lauren Wicinski off the bench.

The Vikings acquired their first double-digit lead in the second quarter off a pair of free throws from Nicole Gregory, who also made the all-tournament team.

Providence was able to cut Geneva's lead to 36-30 at the start of the second half, but the Vikings went on a 6-0 run after that and maintained the double-digit lead the rest of the way.

"We kept with our same game plan," Nolan said. "We did switch to a different press and tried to cause some turnovers that way, and I think we were successful on that. We kind of took them out of the flow of offense."

"In the second half, we just took off," Whitley added. "We had momentum and we played really tough defense."

The Vikings' largest lead of the game was 63-41 after Kat Yelle's basket with 2:52 left in the game.

In addition to Whitley, Geneva was led by Emily Hinchman's 12 points and 7 steals. Gregory tallied 10 points and 5 rebounds.

Providence was led by its two all-tournament players, Michelle Karr (14 points) and Katie Hannemann (12 points).

Wheaton Academy 41, Rosary 39: ΠJudging by the way the Warriors were cheering after Saturday's game in the locker room, one could tell they were pleased with third place after topping the Royals at Geneva's Thanksgiving tournament.

"I'm really proud of the way the girls played," Wheaton Academy coach Beth Mitchell said. "This was a great win for us."

Throughout the entire game, neither team led by more than 6 points. There were 9 ties, with the final one arriving at 39-39 with 1:47 remaining in the game after Rosary's Katie Eckberg's second consecutive putback.

The Royals (4-2), however, would not score again, as Kristine Egbrecht's bucket with 35.6 seconds left in the game would eventually turn into the game-winner for the Warriors (3-2).

Alexa Sharkey, who led all scorers with 13 points, also had a key steal with less than five seconds in the game. She finished with 4 steals and also made the all-tournament team.

"Our defense really helped us tremendously down the stretch," Mitchell said. "We did a good job of switching things up."

Rosary was able to get one final shot off, but the 3-point attempt hit the backboard as the buzzer sounded.

"We were very tentative, and I don't know why," Rosary coach Dave Beebe said. "We should have done much better."

The Royals were led by Victoria Alvarez, who finished with 8 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals. Katie Petrando led all players with 12 rebounds to go with her 7 points and Faith Jones, who was selected to the all-tournament team, scored 7.

Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com

Rosary's Jordan Rettig takes a shot under heavy pressure from Wheaton Academy's Meghan Grant and Alexa Sharkey in the third place Saturday at Geneva.