Mascari's 30 lead Geneva over Streamwood
The Streamwood boys basketball team tried to come all the way back from a 17-point deficit at Geneva Tuesday night but Mitch Mascari and the Vikings would have none of it in a 67-58 win.
Geneva (10-5, 3-2 Upstate Eight River) built a 17-point second-quarter lead as Mascari scored 13 of his career-high 30 points. The Vikings still led by 15 after a Mascari 3-pointer with 5:45 left in the third.
However, Streamwood (7-10, 0-5) used a 17-4 run powered by 10 of junior forward Keenon Cole's team-high 29 points to draw within 43-41.
The Sabres trailed 45-43 in the final seconds of the third quarter but they gave Geneva three looks at the basket. After a pair of missed 3-pointers, 6-foot-3 junior forward Reilly Waldoch's banked putback gave the Vikings a 4-point lead.
They extended that advantage to 6 at the start of the fourth quarter when junior point guard Jack McDonald hit Waldoch with a pass for a layup off a backdoor cut. Just like that Streamwood was chasing again.
"I thought the effort was outstanding," Geneva coach Scott Hennig said. "We got back to playing fundamental basketball, playing Geneva basketball. Streamwood is a good team. They did well at the Jacobs tournament. Cole, I think, will end up being a division-I player. He had 34 against us last time. He's a heck of a player. He's 6-7, can shoot and can play inside but my guys battled."
Geneva won the rebounding battle 23-18 and got the ball inside more in the second half.
As for the Sabres? Not boxing out at the end of a quarter is a transgression that tends to result in losses, particularly on a night when they took the court without junior guard DeAngelo Flynn for undisclosed reasons and second-leading scorer Nikola Sinik due to a minor violation of team rules.
"Those are the things that break your back when it's a close game and you just fought coming all the way back," Streamwood coach Paul Kowalyszyn said. "It's not luck. It's the stupid things that we do. That's what it comes down to. If we clean those little things up, we have a chance to win the game. When you don't, that's when you lose by 10, 15. That's what I'm trying to get them to learn."
The Vikings stretched the lead to 56-48 when Mascari sank his sixth and final 3-pointer of the game. The 6-foot-4 junior sank 6 of 10 attempts from 3-point range.
"My first one went in and it just felt good," he said, "so coach just kept calling plays for me to run off screens, my teammates were setting good screens for me and I was getting open."
McDonald finished with 13 points and 6 assist and Waldoch added 7 points for Geneva.
Senior Brendon Marton finished with 14 points and 3 steals for Streamwood.