Geneva's height keeps West Chicago down

More than halfway through the season, it's no secret that Geneva's height is a tough matchup. But just because the secret is out doesn't mean it's easy to stop.

The Vikings got off to a hot start against West Chicago and turned it into a 63-36 win against the Upstate Eight River opponent on Friday in West Chicago.

Geneva improves to 19-2 overall and 8-1 in the conference, picking up its 10th straight win.

“We talked about our energy coming out. It was strong,” said Vikings coach Phil Ralston. “We did a nice job doing that against Elgin (too). I thought our kids did a great job really putting the pressure on West Chicago right from the tip.”

Getting out to a 14-2 start in the first quarter, the Vikings did well to use their height down low against a noticeably shorter Wildcats team, which was held to just two free throws in the quarter.

In the second quarter it was more of the same for Geneva. Working it down low, mainly to senior forward Nate Navigato, who had 11 of his game-high 13 points in the first half. The Vikings also continued its high trapping zone defense, which only allowed 2 field goals and 10 points in the half.

“I thought we got off to a hot start offensively…,” Navigato said. “It was big. We hit our shots early, defense was a big key in the game and once we got that going we never really looked back.”

In the first half the Wildcats went 2 of 16 from the field and 5 of 7 from the free-throw line.

“We need to shoot the ball better,” said West Chicago coach Bill Recchia. “Obviously, they've got massive size around us, but we just need to shoot the ball better. We got some good looks and I think we had two field goals in the first half. You can't win a ballgame no matter who you're playing when you shoot that way.”

Credit to the Wildcats (5-13, 3-7), they came out in the third quarter down 29-10 and continued to play hard. West Chicago put up 11 points in the third to Geneva's 15. Mike Bibbs lead the scoring for West Chicago with 11 points.

Off the bench in the fourth, Geneva's Jordan Vedder did his best to earn more time for the Vikings, putting up 11 points to help Geneva.

“This team is able to take up a lot of space on the floor,” Ralston said. “The halfcourt looks pretty small with these guys on the floor. They did a nice job of really kind of keeping the pressure on these guys.”