DeKalb denies Geneva tourney title
Geneva played outstanding defense against host DeKalb for the majority of Wednesday night's championship game of the 88th annual Chuck Dayton Holiday Classic, but a few lapses proved costly.
After the Vikings missed a pair of opportunities to take the lead in the final minute, tournament most valuable player Michael Pollack hit a floater in the lane with 1.9 seconds remaining to lift the Barbs to a 41-39 victory and their first tournament title since 2009.
“I thought our guys just did a phenomenal job defending their action, but we fell asleep three possessions on Pollack and Pollack buried us on all three of those possessions,” said Geneva coach Phil Ralston.
“We just told our guys the difference between being good and being great is not having those kinds of mental errors.”
Geneva (10-3) led 31-22 midway through the third quarter when DeKalb (10-3) turned the game around with a 13-point run that included 5 points from Pollack and 4 from Luke Davis.
All-tournament selection Matt Johnston (8 points) hit a tough jumper for Geneva to halt the run and Brandon Schleicher's putback evened the score at 35-35 with 4:55 left.
Johnston scored on a baseline drive and another Schleicher follow-up hoop put Geneva back in front 39-37. Davis answered with a layup for DeKalb with 1:23 left.
Scheicher and Cole Navigato both missed shots that would have given Geneva the lead, setting up DeKalb's final possession.
“It's rough. We just have to run our sets better together and our patience has to be better too,” Schleicher said. “We'll look at the film and go from there.”
“I would rather lose this game right now and win the regional,” Ralston said. “Hopefully for our young men, to taste a loss like this. As coaches we're going to keep this fresh in their minds.”
For the second consecutive night, Geneva senior Jordan Vedder carried the scoring load in the first half by tallying all 13 of his points, including a trio of 3-pointers.
Geneva never trailed in the opening half and led 11-6 after one quarter as Johnston notched a pair of baskets inside with Vedder scoring the other 7 points.
The Vikings built their largest lead of the half at 18-12 with Cole Navigato scoring in the paint followed by a long 3-pointer from the top from Vedder. Cole Tucker and Pollack answered with 3-pointers for DeKalb to narrow the gap to 23-20 at halftime.
Dominic Navigato also earned all-tournament honors for Geneva.