Geneva falls to Indiana power

There is supposed to be no such thing as a "good" loss, but if there is, Saturday might qualify for the Geneva girls basketball team.

True, the Vikings lost to Indianapolis Heritage Christian School 54-47 in the Chicagoland Invitational Classic at Fremd, but this was no ordinary opponent.

The Eagles are winners of 6 of the last 8 Indiana Class 2A titles. They are led by a pair of collegiate Division I recruits in senior guard Tyasha Harris and sophomore Kaitlyn Gilbert, along with a sizable, speedy supporting cast.

The Vikings (13-3) trailed 26-11 midway through the second quarter, but rallied with a 13-2 run at the end of the third quarter to pull to within 35-31. They also countered an 11-2 Heritage Christian run early in the fourth quarter with an 8-2 spurt of their own late that cut the Eagles' lead to 51-45 with 27 seconds to go.

Using a 2-3 zone defense, they held Harris to no field goals in the second half, though she led all scorers with 23 points. They also shot 47 percent from the field (18-for-38), better than the Eagles' 40 percent (17-for-42).

"I'm super-proud of our effort," said Geneva coach Sarah Meadows. "Our kids fought back. We were down 15, and before you know it, it's a 4-point game. We competed. We were right there."

Things didn't start out all that ducky for Geneva. The Vikings turned the ball over 10 times in the first quarter, then had to endure a 5-minute, 45 second scoring drought that put them in the hole 26-11 with under 2 minutes to go in the first half.

The Eagles advanced their lead to 33-18 with 4:41 left in the third quarter, but then the Vikings woke up, fashioning that 13-2 run behind 3-pointers by sophomores Stephanie Hart, Margaret Whitley and Brie Borkowicz, the latter coming from deep in the left corner with 56 seconds left.

Suddenly, the score was 35-31. And Geneva looked poised for an upset.

But Harris and Gilbert prevented that by combining for an 11-2 run midway through the fourth quarter, with Gilbert doing the majority of the damage. She nailed a slashing layup with 3:41 left, and then after making a pair of free throws at 2:02, she made a steal and a layup that put her team up for good at 47-35.

"It was definitely a really good loss for us, because we played really well and I think we know we can beat teams like that," said Borkowicz, who finished with 9 points.

Hart led Geneva with 10 points, and junior Grace Loberg had 9.