Geneva handles St. Charles East
Geneva picked up a much needed Upstate Eight Conference River Division win Friday night by beating St. Charles East at its own game.
Normally it's the Saints bombing away from behind the 3-point line. While Geneva's stifling man-to-man defense held St. Charles East to 3-of-21 shooting on 3s, the Vikings sank 9-of-17 attempts to blow out the Saints on their home court, 62-44.
Bennett Fuzak, playing in his first game since suffering a concussion Dec. 11, led the way with four 3-pointers and a game-high 14 points.
"Give Bennett a lot of credit," Vikings coach Phil Ralston said. "He stepped up and did a terrific job. For a guy who has had four weeks off he looked pretty darn good."
Geneva (11-3, 2-2) needed the win after a pair of early-season conference losses. It also was a rematch of last year's classic regional championship the Vikings won 73-70.
This one didn't have nearly the drama, the Vikings building a 15-point halftime lead and 22 after three quarters.
"It was a huge win," Fuzak said. "We came in knowing they were going to put up a dogfight. We played well.
"We were hitting shots. We were passing the ball, we were sharing the ball. If you look at the scoreboard there was very even scoring. We really shared the ball well."
St. Charles East (8-7, 3-1) led briefly in the first quarter. Benjamin Talarczyk hit a 3 to start the game, then missed nearly the rest of the game in foul trouble picking up his third with 7:33 left in the second quarter and fourth foul with 6:01 left in the third.
Playing without James McQuillan the Saints needed all the firepower they could get, and after holding a 7-4 lead they quickly fell in a hole they couldn't climb out of. Geneva scored the final 8 points of the first quarter and Fuzak opened the second with a 3-point basket.
"We are still trying to find our way," Saints coach Patrick Woods said. "Obviously injuries have played a part. We have some guys trying to do different things they haven't been doing. We have guys who haven't had a lot of varsity experience playing in an environment like that against a good team like Geneva. It's part of the growth process."
The Vikings scored 23 points in the second quarter and 21 more in the third, making 16 of 21 shots from the field over that stretch. They finished hitting 70 percent of their field goal attempts (21 of 30) to just 34 percent (15 of 43) for the Saints. They also dominated the glass, 25-13 led by 6 rebounds from Matt Johnston.
"We had all their sets down and knew how to defend them," Ralston said, crediting assistant Scott Hennig for the scout. "Better yet it was his idea over break to add a few more layers to what we were doing offensively so we were throwing something new at them and it seemed everything new we threw their way worked, we scored off it."
J.T. Ford led the Saints with 13 points, all in the second half. Zach Hondlik added 12.
Six Vikings scored at least 6 points with Dom Navigato totaling 11 to join Fuzak in double figures.
"It was great to be back," Fuzak said. "It was killing me watching and not being able to play. I can't imagine what (injured center) Loudon (Vollbrecht) is going through now. It was just great to be back with the guys fighting on the floor."