Geneva wins without 'A' game

Beating Urban Prep without Geneva's best effort, Vikings coach Phil Ralston gave his players some encouraging words.

“Let's be happy,” the coach said.

Saturday at the 49th annual East Aurora Holiday Tournament, Geneva won 60-52 despite committing 20 turnovers against 32 minutes of full-court defense, which whittled a 16-point second-quarter Vikings lead to 4 on the first basket of the second half.

“Whenever you're playing bad it's nice to get a solid win for the record,” said Vikings center Loudon Vollbrecht, who scored 16 points with 16 rebounds using touch and agility a football offensive tackle with Illinois and Bowling Green offers has no right possessing.

“But then you've got to go right back to work and focus on what you need to do to get the next game done, because you've just got to get better and better every time,” Vollbrecht said, and Geneva (9-1) will need that at 5:45 p.m. Monday against 11-1 Neuqua Valley.

It appeared a laugher was in order after Geneva's Nate Navigato outscored Urban Prep 9-1 on a trio of 3-pointers and a lay-in off Stephen Moyer's offensive rebound.

Urban Prep (7-6) trailed 20-6 on Mike Landi's lay-in from a Navigato steal. The Vikings led 20-11 after one quarter then extended it 28-12 due to Vollbrecht's strength in the paint.

Lacking Geneva's height Urban Prep countered with quickness. Five Geneva turnovers helped the Lions move within 28-24 until Bennett Fuzak's 2 free throws gave the Vikings a 30-24 halftime lead.

“That was our focus coming in, trying to really, really stress the five-second call and then deny the wings. I thought we executed really well,” said Urban Prep coach La-Troy Farrow.

A steal and score by Willie Walton cut Geneva's lead to 30-26, but after a Vollbrecht 1-handed dunk from a Navigato assist Urban Prep never came closer than five points. Scoring Geneva's last 8 points of the third quarter, Navigato had the Vikings up 46-37 entering the fourth.

Navigato led Geneva with 18 points, followed by Vollbrecht and Sean Chambers with 11 including the rare basket plus 2 free throws on a fourth-quarter intentional foul. Urban Prep's Jaquan Johnson scored a game-high 19 points, 16 in the second half.

“We kept our composure in the fourth quarter, hit our free throws and it was a good team win,” said Geneva guard Daniel Santacaterina.