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Geneva routs Bartlett to stay perfect

The Geneva boys basketball team didn't play a perfect first quarter in a 69-43 victory at Bartlett Friday but it wasn't far off.

The Vikings won their fifth straight to open the season by bolting to a 23-2 lead through eight minutes of the Upstate Eight Conference crossover.

Geneva sank 9 of 13 shots and held Bartlett (2-3) without a field goal on 0-for-14 shooting.

“Part of it was they missed shots, but the other part of it was we really came out and attacked them defensively,” Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. “We ran some of our stuff — I wouldn't say we ran it perfectly — but we ran our sets in that first quarter really, really well and I think that's what blew open the lead.”

Geneva's Dom Navigato scored 9 of his game-high 16 points in the first quarter. The 6-foot-5 senior shot 3 of 3 from 3-point range.

“He does it all the time. All the time,” said Cole Navigato, one of Dom's brothers, who finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

Bartlett missed its first 18 field-goal attempts. In fact, the inexperienced Hawks, who started one senior, three juniors and 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Austin Gates, went without a basket for the game's first 10:32. Junior Ben Tompson finally scored underneath off a Geneva turnover to end the drought.

“I don't know if it was tightness or because it was the first home game in front of our crowd and we just got geeked and wanted to take shots?” Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith wondered. “Most of those shots we took in the first quarter were good shots. They just didn't fall.”

Bartlett righted itself in the second and third quarters. The Hawks outscored Geneva 12-11 in the second period and 22-16 in the third. Geneva committed 18 turnovers overall, 11 in the middle two quarters.

“We lost our energy after that big first quarter,” Cole Navigato said. “We had some bad passes and some bad turnovers.”

Bartlett trimmed a 26-point deficit to 16 with 6:30 left in the game when senior reserve guard Rasheed Tatum drained a 3-pointer. However, Geneva outscored the Hawks by 10 the rest of the way to win by 26.

Sophomore guard Mitch Mascari scored 11 points off the bench and sophomore guard Jack McDonald finished with 8 points, 4 assists and 2 steals.

Tomas Vikonis led Bartlett with 10 points and 5 rebounds. Gates posted 8 points and 7 rebounds and Tatum added 7 for the Hawks, who play a nonconference game at Notre Dame today at 6 p.m.

Images: Bartlett vs. Geneva, boys basketball

  Geneva's Cole Navigato blocks a shot by Bartlett's Ben Tompson Friday night at Bartlett. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Geneva's Jack Hood drives to the hoop past Bartlett's Sean Waite Friday. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
  Bartlett's Tomas Vikonis shoots over Geneva's Mitch Mascari Friday. Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com
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