Palmer scores 30 in Geneva's win over Batavia

The Geneva girls basketball team's 70-48 DuKane Conference win against rival Batavia Friday exemplified a well-executed game plan.

Coach Sarah Meadows said she wanted her Vikings to create turnovers via the press and convert them to points by shooting over Batavia's 2-3 zone defense.

Geneva (9-0, 3-0) was successful on both fronts.

Batavia (3-8, 1-2) had trouble breaking the Geneva press and Kate Palmer made them pay. The junior guard sank three of her four 3-pointers and scored 15 of her game-high 30 points in the first quarter.

The Vikings led 21-6 after a quarter and 42-19 at halftime,

"We wanted to pressure them and force them to play fast," Meadows said. "We were in transition quite a bit. We knew they'd play a 2-3, so we wanted to shoot from the outside and crash from the weak side. I thought our kids did a nice job."

Sophomore Tessa Towers led Batavia with 16 points. Senior Erin Golden finished with 14 points and sophomore Claire Nazos made three 3-pointers in a 10-point performance. It wasn't enough to offset the damage done by the Geneva pressure, which forced turnovers with regularity.

"They're so aggressive that it's hard to do what you want," Batavia coach Kevin Jensen said. "That's the whole point. Even if you do break it, you don't run any of your offense. You get up shots but they're rushed shots. Even if they go in, it wears you down."

Senior guard Lindsay Blackmore finished with 10 points, freshman Cassidy Arni added 9 points and senor guard Carly Rasmussen contributed 8 points for Geneva.