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Navigato's 30 points lead Geneva over Batavia

Batavia had Geneva rattled for a stretch in the third quarter Saturday night, whittling a 14-point deficit to 4 and getting the noise level up in its gym to a level it hasn't been at lately while the Vikings have seized control of the rivalry.

Geneva coach Phil Ralston called timeout. He had much more to say to his team besides "get the ball to Nate," but if that's all he said chances are it would have worked out well for the Vikings.

Nate Navigato drove for a basket to end the third quarter, then scored 10 of his game-high 30 points in the final quarter. Geneva broke open what had been a 6-point game early in the fourth for a 58-40 victory.

"I love playing in these games," said Navigato, who has never lost one to Batavia. "It's my last time here, glad we got the 'W.' I couldn't be happier."

The Buffalo-bound Navigato hit 13 of his 23 shots from the field and both free throws. He also grabbed 10 rebounds, dished 4 assists and had 3 steals.

"Nate makes up for a lot of mistakes," Ralston said. "For a kid that scores 30 points he is probably the most unselfish 30-point scorer you'll ever find. There were times he passed up shots and probably took tougher shots in the game than he would have had earlier. He does make up for a lot of mistakes."

Batavia (4-2, 0-2 in the Upstate Eight Conference River Division) forced Geneva (5-0, 1-0) into more mistakes than usual.

It looked early like the Vikings might turn it into a laugher. They led 10-1 five minutes into the game, then went on a 9-0 surge to start the second quarter that made it 25-11.

But Batavia fought back. Danny Pieczynski had a 3-pointer and a jumper during a 12-2 run to close the first half. Chasen Peez picked up a deflected pass and banked it in just before the buzzer that brought the Bulldogs within 27-23 at halftime.

Both crowds at a nearly packed Batavia gym were well into the game at that point, and Batavia's side got even nosier when Geneva center Loudon Vollbrecht was called for an offensive foul and then a technical foul early in the third quarter.

Canaan Coffey made both technical foul shots, and followed with a 3-point basket to bring Batavia within 31-28.

"It tightened up a little bit on us," Ralston said. "We let the environment, we let their pressure they gave us rattle us a little bit. It's almost like we forgot how to pass and catch and play."

Coffey's 3 turned out to be one of the few shots that fell for Batavia in the second half. The Bulldogs shot just 15 percent in the second half - 3 for 20 - to finish 11-39, not nearly enough firepower to keep up with the way Navigato was scoring.

"They are a good team," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said. "We are there maybe three quarters. I don't think we helped on him (Navigato) in the fourth the way we were in the second and third quarters. We weren't able to get over and get the help on him. He's going to Buffalo for a reason for free. It's got to be a team effort. You can't rely on the guy guarding him and in the fourth quarter we lost a little bit of that."

Mike Landi made his season-debut for Geneva, scoring 14 points off the bench in his first game after suffering a concussion in the Vikings' final football game.

Vollbrecht (9 points, 9 rebounds) and Sean Chambers (9 rebounds) joined Navigato in helping Geneva to a dominating 41-17 advantage on the glass.

"Any time you beat Batavia at Batavia, you have had to play well. But there's not a lot of what we did that was polish," Ralston said. "This was all gut, determination, aggressiveness. That's really what the timeout (in the third quarter) was about. You have to come in here and play aggressive."

Geneva owned the boards without 6-foot-10 Chandler Fuzak, out the last week with an ankle he rolled in practice. Also missing is Pace Temple (knee), who Ralston said he hopes to have back in January but does not know for sure if he will.

"We are not the same team last year where at this time last year things were clicking pretty good and we were at full strength," Ralston said. "We are not either of those right now so we're trying to figure out who we are."

Coffey and Peez led Batavia with 11 and 10 points, respectively.

"We ran our offense, got good shots, got easy layups and locked down on D," Navigato said. "I thought the whole night we did a good job on D."

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