Geneva bounces right back

Tim Pease and Max Cary were in complete agreement about the best part of Friday's loss at Rochelle.

They only had to wait 24 hours to play again.

The Vikings got the bad taste of the Hubs' 97 points out of their system with a 70-69 win over St. Charles North in an uptempo game that came down to the final shot Saturday night in Geneva.

"The best time to play after a loss is the next day because you know you don't want to lose again," Cary said.

Cary did his part in making sure Geneva (12-6) didn't have an 0-2 weekend, following up Friday's 21-point, 7-steal line with 18 points, 4 steals and 3 blocked shots.

"I could tell they were ready to get back to work," Pease said. "The best medicine for a loss is to play right away at home."

Alex Turnowchyk led the Vikings with 21 points while Jonathan DeMoss topped all scorers with 22.

DeMoss' bid for 24 -- a leaning jump shot from just inside the 3-point line at the buzzer -- didn't drop. He drew contact on the play but no foul was called.

In the final 1:35, Geneva was 2 for 7 at the free-throw line, including a pair of misses with 5.4 seconds left. DeMoss grabbed the rebound, advanced up court and couldn't connect.

"We got a shot at the end that we could have ended up at the line as easily as we didn't end up at the line," St. Charles North coach Tom Poulin said. "It could have gone either way.

"We didn't lose the game in the last five seconds, we lost the game in the first two quarters."

The North Stars (9-9) turned the ball over 13 times in those first two quarters. Geneva succeeded at getting St. Charles North to play at its preferred fast pace.

"We allowed them to speed us up and take us out of our comfort zone," Poulin said. "We didn't make the best decisions with the basketball. We didn't value the possessions early in the game. We played hard the whole game, I just don't think we played too smart for the majority team. You have to credit Geneva for forcing their style on us."

The game was tied at 22 after the first quarter. The Vikings didn't trail again after Chris Jordan scored on a feed from Turnowchyk to start the second quarter.

Geneva led 39-33 at halftime. St. Charles North tied the game once in the second half, at 47, but the Vikings responded with a 10-1 run keyed by 5 points from Jeremy D'Amico.

"We were pressuring hard and came up with some timely steals, timely baskets," Cary said. "We really stayed composed. We were pretty under control when the game was tight going down the stretch."

Cary's steal and layup put Geneva ahead 66-59 with 2:32 remaining. The combination of Geneva's misses at the free-throw line, a 3-pointer from Zach Hirsch and 5 points from DeMoss allowed the North Stars to nearly erase that 7-point deficit and win the game at the buzzer.

Pease listened to his assistant coaches at halftime and used a zone for much of the second half. It worked for the most part, keeping St. Charles North out of the lane and getting easy shots.

"All my assistants wanted to go to it," Pease said. "It goes against everything that I want to do. I get bored, I get antsy, but what it does is exactly what they envisioned it doing -- slowing them down."

Jordan added 17 points and 9 rebounds while D'Amico finished with 12 points and 10 boards.

Juniors Nick Neari and Hirsch joined DeMoss in double figures for St. Charles North with 16 and 12 points, respectively. Neari added 9 rebounds, while DeMoss had 8.

"I thought DeMoss did an outstanding job for them," Pease said. "He's quite a player. As much as we tried to slow him down, he still was able to do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted."

Geneva will be back at home next Friday, looking to avenge a Western Sun loss to Glenbard South.

St. Charles North will be in Geneva's shoes, trying to shake off Saturday's disappointing loss with games at Larkin and St. Charles East.

"It's frustrating, it's probably the most disappointing one of the year," Poulin said. "We didn't do enough and Geneva played very well."

Laura Stoecker/lstoecker@dailyherald.com

St. Charles North's TIm Janeway pulls down a rebound against Geneva's Jeremy D'Amico.