Geneva routs Oak Lawn

It was as if the Geneva girls basketball team staged a new rendition of Robin Hood Saturday afternoon in Lombard.

The Vikings were a merry band of thieves the entire game against Oak Lawn.

Geneva, making its season debut at the Rachel Bach Tournament at Glenbard East, scored the first 16 points of the game.

Accumulating 23 steals for the game and turning them into a fast-break bonanza of simple baskets, Geneva routed the Spartans 64-27.

"I didn't know what to expect," Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said of her pregame thoughts.

But the game was one-sided from the start as state tournament veterans Grace Loberg and Janie McCloughan jump-started the Vikings' 27-3 game opening run.

Despite limited playing time, McCloughan and Loberg led the Vikings with 14 and 13 points, respectively.

When Loberg, a 6-foot-2 sophomore post, exited the game for the final time in the waning minutes of the third quarter she had compiled one more rebound - 14 - than Oak Lawn had registered points.

But it was the play of the supporting cast that also drew strong praise from Meadows.

Making their varsity debuts, the play of Jen Cale and Stephanie Hart was as infectious as it was demoralizing to any attempt for Oak Lawn to make any inroads into the Vikings' game-long dominance.

"I just wanted to get out there and play," said Cale, who drained a 3-pointer, added two other scores in transition and had two dazzling assists. "I didn't play in the first half, so I was just excited to get in."

Hart also came off the bench to finish as the Vikings' third-leading scorer with her 8 points.

"I was hoping to get a chance to (play varsity)," the freshman said. "It was my first game. The nerves went away, and I just went out there and played."

In perhaps the defining first-half sequence of the game, McKenna Happold, the Vikings' 10th player, had steals and breakaway lay-ins on consecutive Oak Lawn possessions.

"We're trying to make (opposing) kids uncomfortable," Meadows said.

The Spartans were never able to find a solution to the Vikings' man-to-man pressure.

Colleen Grady had a field goal on the Vikings' final second-quarter possession to give Geneva a commanding 33-10 lead at halftime.

The separation was even greater after Oak Lawn was limited to 2 third-quarter field goals, both by Briana Markusic, who led both teams with 15 points.

"They came out a lot faster than us," Markusic said of Geneva. "I think we were a little nervous. The height difference is probably what got us. Their guards were taller than ours."