Geneva wins 1st sectional since 1963
The opponent and the achievement equaled a landmark win for Geneva boys basketball.
Taking a huge and surprising first-quarter lead over once-beaten Rockford Auburn, the No. 3 ranked team in Class 4A, Geneva weathered the inevitable comeback to win its first sectional title since 1963, 65-62 on Friday at the Class 4A DeKalb sectional final.
Out of a timeout with 22.4 seconds remaining and the score tied 62-62, 6-foot-8, 300-pound Loudon Vollbrecht helped break the Knights press with the ball at center court. Harassed, he flung a rope to Nate Navigato at the right baseline. The 6-foot-7 senior took one dribble toward the hoop, banked it in and was fouled, converting the three-point play with 9.8 seconds left.
Auburn turned the ball over but stole it right back, and from the right wing Auburn's Alonte Bjorlie missed a 3-pointer just ahead of the buzzer.
“Nate did what he was doing all game, trying to get open,” said Vollbrecht, whose heft inside produced 11 points, 9 rebounds. “He faked left, went right, I threw it to him. I was praying it was going to get there and of course Nate made it happen.”
“Loudon came and I thought for a second he got trapped, and then I kind of gave him a look, he gave me a look,” said Navigato, who led all scorers with 24 points on 7-of-11 shooting including four 3-point baskets.
Geneva (29-3) gets a look at its first supersectional since 1963, 7:30 p.m. March 17 at Northern Illinois University against Lake Park, a 58-39 winner over St. Viator. Geneva will vie for its third downstate trip, joining that 30-win 1963 club and another from 1908.
“I don't know what the under-over is on (Friday's outcome), but I told our kids, hey, we've been in this situation before, we've gone up against teams (like) Auburn, we had a run against tough teams last year,” said Geneva coach Phil Ralston, who collected his 250th career victory spanning 15 seasons.
“Our path to get to where we were at was pretty tough, so, hey, no pressure, let's go out and have fun, let's play Geneva basketball. And our kids really came out like gangbusters in that game. And I think once they had a little taste of success they were on the attack.”
Auburn (29-2) went 3 of 13 from the field as it saw Geneva burst to a 25-8 first quarter lead, the Vikings going 5 of 6 from 3-point range and 8 of 9 overall behind Navigato, Vollbrecht and driving point guard Pace Temple.
Before it totally got away Auburn turned up the defense in the second quarter to force 6 Geneva turnovers. The Knights tied the score at 34-34 as the raucous, packed DeKalb gym went up for grabs. Just before halftime Geneva's Bennett Fuzak made a 3 to put Geneva ahead 37-34 at halftime.
“We were up 3, we were all happy about it,” said Navigato, whose 3 first-quarter 3-pointers kicked off a 19-2 Vikings lead. “We knew if we were up at halftime we were in great shape.”
Though Geneva showed several defensive looks from man to 1-2-2 zone to 1-3-1 with the likes of 6-7 Mike Landi and 6-10 Chandler Fuzak heading the zone — and Bjorlie, 15-point scorer Nylek Cobb, and 18-point man Antoine Pittman all battling foul trouble — Auburn led 46-42 than ran nearly all the last 2:15 of the clock in the third quarter, settling for a missed 3.
“Shorten the game?” Ralston asked rhetorically? “No one shortens games better than we do.”
Rockford Auburn coach Bryan Ott later admitted he would have liked to continue attacking.
“Wish we could kind of do that over,” he said. “Having said that, we're still leading at the quarter, so it's our responsibility to defend that lead going into the fourth and we didn't do it.”
A 19-7 run fueled by big plays inside by Stephen Moyer, Navigato and Vollbrecht gave Geneva a 61-53 lead with 1:29 to play.
“I think the biggest part of it was really just trying to get the ball to Nate and Loudon,” said Temple, who scored 14 points. “Those two are just matchup problems and the two best players on our team. I think we did a great job in the second half letting them make plays for us.”
Again Auburn fought back, with 3s from Green Bay recruit Pittman and 2 by Cobb, who had the defensive assignment on Navigato.
It seemed Auburn forced a turnover on a Geneva inbounds play with 22.4 seconds left, but the Vikings were awarded the time out, then made history.
Along with inside presence which equaled a 27-20 Geneva rebounding advantage and 22-of-39 shooting, Ralston believed Geneva's depth — adding starter Daniel Santacaterina and sixth-man Sean Chambers the Vikings went nine-deep — would be a factor against Auburn. All contributed including the Fuzak brothers, who transferred from Wheaton Academy.
“We felt led to come here,” Chandler Fuzak said, “and now I'm seeing why, definitely.”