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St. Charles North first to beat Geneva

There were plenty of storylines heading into Friday night's boys basketball game between Geneva and St. Charles North.

That list included Geneva's season-long 26-game unbeaten streak and Vikings coach Phil Ralston sitting on 299 career wins during his 17-year career at Grant (108-102) and Geneva (191-74).

In addition, the North Stars were looking to avenge last month's 67-62 double-overtime loss to Geneva while playing in their home season finale - the last of retiring assistant coach Rob Prentiss' career.

Senior guard Anthony Delisi's pull-up jumper from the elbow with 4 seconds remaining in overtime lifted the North Stars (17-7, 8-3) to a thrilling 62-60 Upstate Eight Conference River Division victory over the Vikings (26-1, 10-1) before a frenzied crowd in St. Charles.

Working off a ball screen from junior forward Kyle King (15 points, 11 rebounds), Delisi dribbled to his right, rose up and swished the 14-footer to give the North Stars their first lead of the 4-minute extra session.

"It's probably the number one shot I practice - the pull-up jumper off the ball screen," said Delisi, who finished with a team-high 19 points. "I took what they gave me and it happened to go in."

After a Geneva turnover, King inbounded the ball to Brendan Dal Degan, who dribbled out the final 1.7 seconds and sent the North Stars' student section onto the court in celebration.

"That's a classic - much like the first one," said North Stars coach Tom Poulin. "To be able to beat somebody like Geneva means we've taken some strides because they're the best team we've seen - and we've seen some good ones."

Led by sophomore guard Jack McDonald's career-high 23 points, Geneva led by as many as 8 on two separate occasions - the last at 26-18 following McDonald's basket on the Vikings' opening possession of the third quarter.

However, St. Charles North countered with Delisi's 3-pointer and King's layup off a feed from Tyler Nubin (7 points) to make it 26-23.

Late in the period, the North Stars grabbed a 39-38 lead on the second of three 3-pointers by Dal Degan (11 points) only to have McDonald answer at the other end with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer of his own to give the Vikings a 41-39 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

A putback from Geneva's Dom Navigato (17 points) with 1:50 left in regulation tied the game at 50-50, and Delisi came up empty on his last-second drive to the basket.

Trailing 60-57 late in overtime, Dal Degan's clutch 3-pointer with 21 seconds left and a Geneva free-throw line violation set the stage for Delisi's heroics.

"I'm happy for him," Poulin said of Dal Degan. "He's the epitome of a team-first basketball player."

Cole Navigato added 9 points and 10 rebounds for Geneva.

"I told our guys, 'hey, I'll take this loss if we don't take a loss in a regional game,' " said Ralston, who will try for his 300th victory Saturday in Quincy.

"I know people are going to be building up the streak and OK, 26 straight victories is pretty darn impressive. I'm not worried about that. We're worried about the next goal - to win a regional."

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