Waubonsie too strong for Geneva

Waubonsie Valley knew how Geneva could create havoc in the Upstate Eight Conference first place crossover matchup Friday night in Geneva.

Good thing for the Warriors they had just as good of an idea of how they could cause a few problems of their own.

Six-foot-3 senior Rachael Ross had her way inside, scoring 9 of her 15 points during a game-breaking 13-0 third-quarter run that was the difference in the Warriors' 56-43 victory.

No. 3 Waubonsie Valley (23-2), who tied Bartlett for the Valley Division title and won a coin flip to play No. 4 and River champ Geneva (22-5), never trailed in a game that was tight for a half.

"If we had a strength over Geneva it was the post play," Waubonsie Valley coach Kim Connell said. "It's a great win. Any time you can beat a team like Geneva it's a good win for the program. The only thing I'm disappointed in is in spots we lost our composure. We have to weather the storm."

One such spot came after the Warriors opened the game with a 5-0 lead. The Vikings quickly struck back with back-to-back steals leading to buckets for Rachel Hinchman and Sami Pawlak to tie the game at 7.

Connell called her first timeout, and that turned out to be the only tie. Connell used her timeouts quickly the Warriors called their final one with over four minutes remaining and she succeeded in keeping Geneva's runs at a minimum.

While the Warriors did turn the ball over 31 times, they also broke Geneva's press often enough to get high-percentage shots to finish shooting over 50 percent from the field (21 of 41). The Vikings were way off that clip at 31 percent (18 of 58).

"That's the first time we've seen any pressure like that for the whole game," Connell said. "That's good for us going into the state tournament."

Down 21-11 in the second quarter, Geneva blitzed the Warriors with 9 points in just over a minute on two Michaela Loebel assists to Abby Novak and Hinchman, a Hinchman 3 and then Loebel's steal and layup to bring the Vikings within 21-20.

Geneva got another lift on its final possession of the half when Hinchman connected on a 3 to bring the Vikings within 30-28.

After all-conference picks were honored at halftime including the Valley Player of the Year Haley Videckis of Bartlett and Geneva's Ashley Santos for the River Geneva's momentum quickly disappeared in the second half.

The Warriors worked the ball inside to Ross for the first two baskets. She later capped the Warriors' 13 unanswered points in the quarter with a free throw for a their biggest lead of the game at 43-28.

"I just knew we had a height advantage, that's basically what the scouting report said," Ross said. "Coach said they have some good tenacious players but we have an advantage inside. My teammates gave me the ball and I just put it in the basket."

Geneva's only field goal in the quarter came on Pawlak's drive with 30 seconds to go. The Vikings missed their first nine shots and committed 9 turnovers as the game got away from them.

Without being able to create offense from its defense, Geneva came to a standstill in the half-court.

"We go into halftime with momentum and we came out flat," Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. "It's not a big secret. We play better when we get steals and we can transition. We just didn't do that. I felt we played really, really hesitant on offense and as we play better teams we can't do that or we are going to have the same result. We're going to face a lot of good teams coming up so we have to pick it up."

Geneva got as close as 48-39 in the fourth quarter on Morgan Seberger's 3. Tami Morice fired right back with her fourth 3 of the game for the Warriors, whose victory completed a 7-0 sweep for the Valley Division over the River in the crossover matchups.

"That's a good testament to our side of the conference," Connell said. "It was a strong conference this year. I was glad we won the toss so we could play Geneva."

Morice led Waubonsie with 19 points. Erica Jordan scored 12 and Gratia Brooks had 8 points and 12 rebounds.

"Coach told us this game would get us ready for the state tournament," Ross said. "They played really well against us and we gave them a good game and we have some good momentum going into the state tournament."

Geneva will return home this week for regional play starting Tuesday. The Vikings are the No. 2 seed behind Bartlett in the Hoffman Estates sectional.

This was the Vikings' eighth game since losing Santos to a season-ending ACL injury. They are 6-2 with losses to Fenwick and Waubonsie Valley the kind of quality teams they will need to beat the next two weeks if they want to bring home the program's fourth straight sectional championship.

"We knew it was going to be a tough game," Hinchman said. "Mentally we were all focused and ready to go. We have to keep our heads high because we have a new season starting next week. We want to go undefeated. We didn't like this feeling of losing. We know we have to pick it up."

Hinchman led Geneva with 13 points, Pawlak scored 10 with 7 rebounds and Seberger had 8 points.

Novak, a freshman who was called up to varsity when Santos was injured, gave the team a big spark. She was the first player off the bench and finished with 6 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and also forced a 10-second call.

"She played awesome," Meadows said. "That's a freshman playing in a really big game and is not scared off. I'm proud of her."