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Streamwood surprises Geneva

Geneva boys basketball coach Phil Ralston couldn’t help but feel his team looked past Streamwood on Friday night.

The Sabres were happy to send the Vikings home in a bad mood.

Streamwood rallied from a 13-point second-quarter deficit and upset Geneva, 44-43, in overtime in an Upstate Eight River Division matchup.

“Streamwood’s got good basketball players. That what will happen to you if you take them lightly,” Ralston said. “We played tight on defense, played very uncharacteristically poor defense down the stretch. We gave them easy baskets or fouled them.”

The Vikings (15-6, 6-4) beat Streamwood by 26, 59-33, earlier this season. The Sabres (10-16, 2-8) came into Friday’s game on a three-game losing streak overall and an eight-game UEC River skid.

For much of the first half it appeared the Vikings might run away from the Sabres again. Geneva went on an 11-0 run to take a 21-8 lead with 5:58 remaining in the first half. Nate Navigato had 6 points and Mike Trimble had 5. Streamwood got the deficit down to 8, 25-17, at halftime. Navigato hit a 3-pointer with 5:21 remaining in the third quarter to give the Vikings a 30-20 lead.

The Sabres answered with an 13-2 run to take a 33-32 lead with 1:43 to go in the third. Trevious Norman had 5 points and Zach Harris and Vince Williams each added 4 during the run.

“It was nice we came back. The kids didn’t keep their heads down and bag it in,” Sabres coach Tim Jones said. “They played hard and got themselves back in the ballgame.”

The game was tied 35-35 heading to the fourth. A 3-pointer from Chris Parrilli with 6:37 remaining was the Vikings’ only points of the quarter. Harris had an offensive rebound and putback with 3:17 to go and hit 1-of-2 free throws with 1:22 remaining for Streamwood’s only points of the quarter.

Navigato, who finished with a game-high 22 points, had a 3-point play to start overtime. The Sabres’ Jacob Siewert answered with a 3-pointer with 2:55 remaining. Streamwood took a 42-41 lead on Ryan Dichoso’s free throw with 2:39 remaining in OT. Siewert then hit a pair of free throws with 51 seconds to go.

Geneva called two timeouts in the final 39 seconds, but could not get off a 3-point shot. Cam Cook’s layup with 5 seconds remaining was all the Vikings could get. Williams held the ball under the basket until their was a second left and just threw it down to the other end of the court as the buzzer sounded.

“We were in the game and started having more fun,” Siewert said. “We were just playing basketball.”

Siewert and Harris each had 11 points for the Sabres, who finished with only 6 turnovers, including only one in the second half and overtime. Harris added 6 rebounds.

The Vikings had just 3 field goals and had only 8 shot attempts in the fourth and overtime. Parrilli had 8 points and 5 rebounds.

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