Batavia spoils Geneva’s River hopes
While Cole Gardner’s senior basketball season hasn’t gone like he wanted, his senior night sure did.
Just another double-double for Gardner, but more importantly he was part of a rally from 13 points down to beat Geneva 61-54 in front of a pretty full house at Batavia.
And that outcome didn’t appear likely given either Batavia’s 6-17, 3-9 record or when Geneva (13-11, 7-4) built a 26-13 lead late in the first half.
But a 17-2 run by Batavia to open the third quarter turned the tide and gave the finally healthy Bulldogs a second straight win following 12 consecutive losses.
“It was a great win, a ton of energy tonight,” said Gardner, one of four Bulldogs in double figures with 13 points plus 12 rebounds. “The guys said let’s stick together. That’s the second time we have had the full team basically and we have won them both. We knew when we are together like this we can do things.”
The loss denies the Vikings a shot at tying St. Charles North (13-13, 9-3) for the Upstate Eight River Division title. Instead, the North Stars will become Geneva fans Tuesday when the Vikings try to win at Elgin (21-3, 8-3) and give the North Stars an outright championship.
Geneva can only hope to play spoiler to Elgin as well as Batavia did Friday night. Mike Rueffer scored 14 of his game-high 17 points in the second half while Zach Strittmatter tallied 14 and Micah Coffey 12.
“Any time especially in a rivalry game if you can take them off the top of the conference that’s just huge,” Coffey said. “All our guys pulled through and got the job done.”
After a tight first quarter, Geneva held Batavia scoreless the first six minutes of the second. The Vikings scored the first 12 points of the that quarter, the final two when Brendan Leahy hit 2 free throws on a technical foul on the Batavia bench.
But Coffey sparked an 8-2 surge to end the second quarter with two of his four first-half 3s, the fourth coming on a feed from Jake Pollack to trim Geneva’s lead to 28-22.
“Going into the game I knew they would have that box-and-one on Cole so I had to step up and hit 3s and guys kept finding me,” Coffey said.
After Coffey kept Batavia in the game in the first half, Rueffer came alive in the second. He hit back-to-back 3s to first tie the game at 28 and then put the Bulldogs ahead to stay 31-28.
A Ben Rogers drive was the only points Geneva put on the board while Batavia built a 39-30 lead, Gardner’s tip-in on a missed free throw capping the run.
“We had a chance to put them on the ropes and we let them off the hook the last two minutes (of the first half),” Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. “That gives them some momentum.
“We didn’t make plays in the second half. We didn’t come out with the same fire. We were not as disciplined. We weren’t as crisp, and they were.”
Batavia led 44-38 after three quarters. Geneva cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 4 points three times in the final quarter, the first on Mark Becker’s up-and-under move and the next two times on Connor Chapman scores.
Each time Batavia was able to give itself a little more breathing room including 2 free throws by Rueffer with 56 seconds left and 2 more from Gardner moments later.
“The kids fought through some adversity,” Batavia coach Jim Roberts said. “When shots don’t fall how do you handle it. I’m happy for them but probably the bigger word would be proud. They didn’t go belly-up. It’s good to see kids’ work pay off.”
Batavia hit nine 3s to Geneva’s 2, four each from Rueffer and Coffey. They outrebounded the Vikings 32-29 and committed 2 fewer turnovers.
Chapman led Geneva with 17 points and 7 rebounds before fouling out late. Leahy added 12 points — all in the first half; in his last game at St. Charles North Leahy scored 19 of his 22 points in the first half.
“That’s huge right there,” Ralston said. “Part of it was we didn’t run our sets. It seemed every time we tried to run a set (for Leahy) it was run poorly.”
Now 1-1 this year, the teams play a third time Feb. 27 in the Class 4A Metea Valley regional.
“I guess the good part of this is we get a second shot at them,” Ralston said. “We at least have that opportunity to play a better game the next time we see them.
“We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. Obviously too bad we lost out on a chance to win conference. It’s a shame we were in this situation and didn’t get it done but we’ve got games ahead of us. It’s time to put the big boy pants on and go play basketball.”