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Geneva shoots past St. Charles North

Geneva senior Margaret Whitley has played enough basketball to know if her first couple shots aren't dropping, it's no reason to stop shooting.

Whitley hit an early 3-pointer at St. Charles North Thursday night, then went cold for the rest of the first quarter, missing her next four attempts.

The UAB recruit did other things to help her team during that stretch with 4 assists, and sure enough the shots soon started falling. Whitley scored 18 of her game-high 21 points over the final three quarters, leading Geneva to a 67-39 victory.

"Even if you start missing shots, I can't just stop shooting because I'm not making it," Whitley said. "You have to be smarter than that. I missed a couple and kind of got mad at myself but I thought if I stop shooting what am I doing to help everyone so I stayed positive."

For just the second time this year, the Vikings (21-3, 10-0 in the UEC River) played with a different starting lineup. Sophomore Lindsay Blackmore replaced Maddy Yelle, who injured her knee Friday against Batavia.

Coach Sarah Meadows said she thinks Yelle will be back Saturday against Sycamore at the Kaneland Shootout. Blackmore, not feeling 100 percent herself, led both teams with 8 rebounds.

"She pushed through and played really well," Whitley said. "She did great tonight, came out and stepped up."

St. Charles North (13-11, 5-5), who upset Geneva in this matchup last year, took two early leads, the final one 9-7 on Anna Tate's bucket.

The Vikings quickly went back up on Madison Mallory's 3-point shot, the start of a 24-5 run that ended when Stephanie Hart found Brie Borkowicz for a 3 and a 31-14 lead.

Geneva nailed 11 shots from beyond the 3-point arc, led by Hart with 4 and Whitley 3.

"Every time we scored a bucket they came down and answered and often with a 3," North Stars coach Mike Tomczak said. "Man, did they shoot the ball well tonight."

That happened again in the third quarter when the North Stars pulled within 39-26 on baskets by Anna Davern and Tate. In the next minute, Whitley and Hart buried shots and Hart drained another 3 to push the lead back to 20.

"There were times their posts were guarding our guards and we wanted to attack that," Meadows said. "See if we could get that mismatch working in our favor."

Hart (5 assists, 3 steals) and Mallory both scored 16 points while Davern led the North Stars with 12 points and Tate and Launi Chanthaboury scored 11.

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