Geneva bands together against Addison Trail
Cole Navigato and his basketball brethren performed like a tightly knit unit on Monday.
Cole finished with 22 points. One of his triplet brothers, Dom, had 19 points, which including five 3s. The other triplet, Devin, went scoreless but got playing time in the fourth quarter.
Jack McDonald (16 points) and Matt Johnson (10) had key contributions as well, as Geneva's boys basketball team stayed unbeaten by rolling past Addison Trail 79-51 on Monday to claim the championship of Lake Zurich's Martin Luther King, Jr., tournament.
"We do know our strengths and weaknesses," said Cole Navigato of his on-court connection with Dom. "He knows that he can shoot the 3s, and he can assist by getting the ball to me inside.
"Our team is relentless and never gives up. We know that we can beat every team that we play, and we play unselfishly. We look for the open person, and no one really cares who scores."
The Vikings got their 20th win of the season without a loss. The tournament title is their third of the season, following triumphs at Crystal Lake Central and DeKalb.
"You don't have seasons like this very often," Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. "To be one of the first teams to 20 wins in the state is a nice accomplishment. But were looking forward. Big things for us are winning conference, regional - and going further. We have bigger things that were going after. We take things one game at a time. It's the beauty of these kids they don't look too far ahead."
On Monday, Geneva stayed in control most of the game, jumping ahead 19-13 lead after the first quarter and leading 35-27 at the half.
Addison Trail (11-7, 4-1) tried to chip away against Geneva (20-0, 5-0) and cut the lead to 48-42 on a Colton Noel's short jumper with 2:05 left in the third quarter.
The Vikings responded with 4 straight points, from Johnson's 3-point play and Cole Navigato making 1 of 2 free throws, for a 52-42 lead after three quarters.
"We were struggling to defend all night," Addison Trail coach Brendan Lyons said. "We didn't do a good job and couldn't get consistent stops. Also, shot selection wasn't very good from the third quarter on. Sometimes (Geneva) took it away from us and sometimes we took it away ourselves. We just couldn't find a way to stop (Geneva).
The Vikings took over in the final quarter, outscoring the Blazers 27-9.
Breydon Hargrove and Michael Williams led Addison Trail with 12 points apiece.
"We really needed to keep it a two- or three-possession game going into the fourth," Lyons said. "Overall, this tournament was a good experience for us. We played a team that's probably going to be a top-four seed in our sectional. This was a nice measuring stick for our guys to see and where we are.
"We've played some nice teams this year. Our guys have to understand that to compete at that level, we have to lift it up a couple of notches on both ends of the floor."