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Geneva welcomes Temple back, beats Larkin

On a night when Geneva returned to its old basketball stamping grounds in Mack Olson Gym, another familiar face made his return to the court Saturday night.

Senior guard Pace Temple, who missed the Vikings' first 16 games with a knee injury, came off the bench to score 8 points with 6 rebounds and a pair of steals during the team's 57-45 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over Larkin (12-5, 4-3) in Geneva.

It didn't take long for Temple, who suffered a torn medial collateral ligament in his left knee during the Vikings' Class 7A season-ending football quarterfinal playoff loss to Cary-Grove, to contribute.

Making his season debut at the 5:43 mark of the opening quarter, the 6-2 Temple stole a pass and sank a layup about a minute later to give the Vikings (11-2, 4-1) an early 4-3 lead.

Two minutes later, Temple stepped in front of a Larkin pass and dribbled all the way for another easy basket and a 10-3 lead.

While seeing limited playing time, Temple was a welcome sight for the Vikings.

"I thought Pace did a wonderful job being his first game back - by far what I would have expected," said Geneva coach Phil Ralston. "He gave us so much more depth at guard."

After a pair of free throws from junior guard Brandon Schleicher extended the Vikings' lead to 23-14 with 2:44 left in the second quarter, the Royals regrouped.

Sophomore Christian Negron (5 points, 10 rebounds) began an 11-0 run with a baby hook before Tanner Gardon connected on his third 3-pointer of the half to cut the deficit to 23-19.

Charles Sanders converted a 3-point play on their next possession and Negron's driving layup put the Royals on top 24-23.

Larkin led 25-23 at halftime.

"Sometimes halftime is a good thing - sometimes not so much," said Larkin coach Deryn Carter.

It was very much the latter for the Royals, who led 32-29 midway through the third quarter before the Vikings closed out the period with 15 unanswered points.

Held scoreless in the first half, Nate Navigato keyed the third-quarter surge with a pair of 3-pointers.

"He's a good player," Carter said of Navigato. "It's tough to keep him bottled up the whole game. He made some big shots in the third quarter."

Despite his first-half struggles, Navigato led the Vikings with 17 points and 4 steals.

"This was kind of an uncharacteristic game for Nate," said Ralston. "I think he's allowed to have one of these games every so often."

Temple set off a mini-celebration near the Vikings' bench when he hit a tough runner to beat the third-quarter buzzer.

"I'm not a fan of the floater but when you've got a guy who can hit them like this guy right hereā€¦," Ralston said of Temple. "More often than not, it's a low percentage shot. When it goes right for you, everyone loves it."

Ralston wasn't surprised with Temple's all-around determination.

"He's probably one of the best competitors I've seen in my life," said the coach. "If it had not been up to a doctor, I think he would have been trying to get back 2 or 3 weeks ago."

"I don't really like sitting still in general," said Temple. "It's a lot easier watching your team win - which we did a lot of. I feel like I'm 100 percent and I'm blessed to be back on the court."

Bennett Fuzak chipped in with 12 points while Loudon Vollbrecht added 10 points and 14 rebounds.

"We really needed this game," said Ralston. "It was a quality win against a very good team."

Gardon led Larkin with 15 points on five 3-pointers.

"They made some defensive adjustments but I just don't think as a collective group we did a good enough job of playing possession by possession basketball," said Carter. "We'll learn from it."

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