Geneva keeps Lake Park out of rhythm

Dylan Fuzak and the Geneva Vikings heeded the game plan and in turn spoiled Lake Park's Senior Night.

"In the locker room before the game, coach (Scott Hennig) really talked about us hustling," Fuzak said following Geneva's 48-39 victory over the Lancers on Friday. "And going over the key game plan in order for us to win. (Hennig said) if we didn't hustle, none of that would matter. We were playing hard at the beginning of the game and it just came down to the four things we talked about."

Fuzak, the 6-foot-9 Vikings junior, has shown plenty of flashes this season in a variety of areas. Fuzak demonstrates plenty of passing ability in the post and physicality defensively. Fuzak finished with 9 points and 2 rebounds.

"You can't teach his size," Hennig said. "In our zone he does a great job. I told him (on) the last shot (Lancers guard Luke Sgarbossa) made, Dylan was right up there. All (6-9) of him. ... Unfortunately for me, but great for him, his best basketball is probably in four years. He's still growing; still filling out."

"Dylan gets better every game; selfishly, I'm glad I have him for another year," Hennig added.

The Vikings (15-12, 4-9) swept Lake Park (22-7, 8-5) in the regular season, yet the Lancers hold the No. 1 seed in the Class 4A Addison Trail sectional.

"It's always nice to come in and get a (win) on a night that it's important to them," Fuzak said. "Overall, it was just a huge accomplishment sweeping them, and they just got ranked No. 1 for our sectional, so that's a big confidence boost going into the playoffs."

"We're going game-by-game right now, but we're focusing on what we got next week: Metea Valley, but we've still got two games left, so it's one step at a time."

Both teams put on a slow first-half performance. The Vikings led 16-13 at the break. Lancers senior forward Trevor Montiel tied the game at 23-23 with a pair of free throws with 2:27 left in the third quarter, but the Vikings responded with a 3-pointer from Nate Valentine.

Montiel hit another pair of free throws, and then Vikings sophomore Chris Suger followed with another 3 to put the Vikings up 4 at the end of the quarter.

Lancers senior Joey Czaja kept the Lancers close with 8 of his 12 points in the fourth quarter, but the Vikings countered with 8 points from Drew Johnson and 6 points from Fuzak.

Johnson finished with 10 points and 8 rebounds. Josh Preston had 12 points and 4 rebounds. Valentine had 6 points.

For Lake Park, Sgarbossa had 8 points and 2 rebounds, while Montiel had 10 points and 5 rebounds.

"We were certainly out of rhythm," Lancers coach Billy Pitcher said. "We had some good looks in the first half that didn't fall. I thought we were the beneficiary of some calls; we got some fortunate calls our way in the first half, and we're still only down 3."

"Once again, we got out-coached big-time," Pitcher added. "Scott just did a phenomenal job with the game plan against us and Luke and Trevor ... both times against us, they get every loose ball and rebound. They just get every loose ball and rebound, and it's really frustrating that we couldn't do that."