Geneva, St. Charles East meet for sectional crown

It's history vs. who's hot, it's height against how do we stop Katie Claussner, it's the tiebreaker in what's been an entertaining, hotly contested rivalry this winter between neighboring Upstate Eight foes.

It all goes down at Geneva at 7 p.m. Thursday when the second-seeded Vikings (22-6) host No. 4 St. Charles East (22-7) in the Class 4A Geneva sectional championship game.

The Vikings have history on their side with four sectional championships in the last six years.

The Saints have just one in their school history, yet they come into the game the hotter team with 11 straight wins including a 15-point victory over No. 1 seed Conant on Monday.

That's one reason Geneva wasn't that excited following a 49-40 win over Bartlett Tuesday in its sectional semifinal.

"It wasn't our best game," Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. "It was a 'W.' We survived to play on Thursday and we know we have to do better on Thursday. East, we've got to shut them down on the defensive side. In every area we need to do better. Overall we just have to play better."

The teams split their Upstate Eight River matchups. Geneva won the first 57-49 behind 20 points each from Grace Loberg and Margaret Whitley.

Claussner scored 20 in that loss, then poured in 30 as the Saints won the second meeting 66-54.

The quick, shifty lefty with the deadly pullup jumper and driving ability will be priority No. 1 for the Geneva defense.

"She is just hard to guard," Meadows said.

Another key for St. Charles East is keeping freshman forward Sara Rosenfeldt on the court. She is having an excellent postseason, scoring in double figures in all three games - 16 points on 8-of-8 shooting with 9 rebounds against Glenbard North followed by 10 points and 7 rebounds vs. St. Charles North and 13 and 7 against Conant.

Rosenfeldt got in foul trouble in the first meeting with Geneva and the Vikings capitalized when she was on the bench. Like she did in the regional final battling against St. Charles North's front line of Nichole Davidson, Morgan Rosencrants and Claire Jakaitis, the Saints will be counting on Rosenfeldt against another imposing trio - Loberg, Janie McCloughan and Abby Novak.

Loberg, a 6-foot-2 sophomore, will be quite a challenge for the Saints. She had 23 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocked shots and 5 steals in Tuesday's win against Bartlett.

"It's going to be an exciting game," Loberg said. "They are a good team. But we definitely have all the keys to beat them. We have to focus on ourselves and not them."

One of the differences in the team's two meetings is another sophomore, St. Charles East guard Sam Munroe. She didn't start in the first game, but the Saints are 11-1 since she became a starter, and she scored 16 points with 4 clutch 3-pointers in the team's win over Geneva.

"I think it will be an exciting game," Saints coach Lori Drumtra said. "We share some characteristics with them. We both have strong senior leadership, we both have some stronger younger players. The key for us will be defense - how well we handle their press and their inside game. We need to keep them off the free-throw line as well. I think both teams are playing very well right now and it will come down to who plays the better defensive game."

One thing is for sure - the crowd should be bigger and more fevered than either team has seen this year. And there's a chance the same two schools will meet on the same court the following Friday with a boys basketball regional title up for grabs.

Boys or girls, Geneva and St. Charles East have had an unforgettable winter of basketball. The boys teams at 26-2 and 22-3, respectively, the girls a combined 44-13 - all that's left is to find out which of those outstanding teams gets to move on.

The winner Thursday will play either New Trier or Evanston Monday at the Class 4A Conant supersectional.

"It was awesome," Claussner said of how many students showed up Monday. "We hope it is going to be even bigger Thursday."