Geneva extends streak vs. Antioch
The string of regular-season wins was never in danger for the Geneva girls basketball team Saturday afternoon.
The Vikings entered first-round play in their Thanksgiving tournament against Antioch and dismantled the Sequoits 77-31 to extend their consecutive win streak to 55 in Geneva.
The Vikings last tasted defeat in regular-season play with a February 2008 Western Sun Conference loss to Batavia.
Kat Yelle and Sammy Scofield showed ample evidence from the get-go their fourth year of varsity basketball together was as seamless as the latest Vikings' win was one-sided.
“Kat and I have been playing together since seventh grade,” said Scofield, one of four double-digit producers for Geneva. “We have a very good flow together. It's going to be weird when we do lose (a regular-season game), but I hope we don't.”
Geneva (1-0) hit the Sequoits (1-1) with the first 11 points of the game, and its opportunistic defense was the primary cause of breakdowns by Antioch throughout the contest.
Yelle, who led all scorers with 19 points, throttled the Sequoits' backcourt with 6 of the Vikings' 22 steals as Geneva overcame its own turnover issues to race out to a 21-5 lead after the first quarter.
“We have had hard practices for the last three weeks,” said the Ohio-bound Yelle, who also engineered the Vikings' offense with a game-high 6 assists. “We were just ready for this game. I try to be a role model to this team.”
Antioch would not reach double figures until midway through the second quarter; the Vikings, meanwhile, had stretched their lead to 18 points by that point as Scofield had 6 of her 15 points during the second quarter.
Geneva was well on its way to victory with a commanding 41-16 lead at the break.
As if Antioch did not have enough to contend with the Vikings' two senior standouts, Geneva also fluidly integrated Katelyn Allen and Ashley Santos into its offensive attack.
Santos, a junior forward, was a disruptive force at both ends for Geneva, collecting 13 points and game-high 8 rebounds.
Allen was the fourth Geneva player to reach double figures; the senior forward scored 7 points during a final Vikings run as part of her 16-point afternoon.
Reserves Rachel Hinchman and Dori Rogers combined for 10 more Geneva points as the team played its first game since coach Gina Nolan was diagnosed with breast cancer last summer.
Nolan calmly sat the entire game as longtime Geneva boys coach Tim Pease largely directed game operations.
“I didn't know if I could be here,” Nolan said. “I have all the confidence in my assistant coaches.”
Andie Potkonjak had three 3-pointers in scoring a team-high 11 points for Antioch.
“We didn't let them work to score points,” Antioch coach Tim Borries said. “We needed to make them get into their half-court sets. They had a lot of easy runouts. We couldn't stop it. They're a good team.”
Geneva hosts Providence in second-round action on Tuesday night.