St. Charles East turns away Geneva

Five days after feeling like it let a game slip away against Batavia last weekend, St. Charles East's boys basketball team made certain it didn't happen again Wednesday night.

The Saints (17-9, 6-6) pulled away down the stretch during their 55-43 Upstate Eight Conference River Division triumph over Geneva (17-12, 7-5) in St. Charles.

After the Vikings trimmed a 14-point, second-half deficit to 2 at 37-35 on a basket by sophomore Josh Preston with 7:46 left in the game, the Saints answered with back-to-back 3-pointers from junior guard Nate Ortiz to make it 43-35.

"Nate is one of our best 3-point shooters statistically," said Saints coach Patrick Woods. "He's got close to 75 threes on the year."

"He's a good shooter," Vikings coach Scott Hennig said of Ortiz, who led the Saints with 18 points and 7 rebounds. "We just lost him twice and he made us pay."

A pair of free throws by junior guard Jack McDonald (18 points, 4 assists, 3 steals) pulled the Vikings within 6 at 43-37 with 5:02 left but the Saints put the game away with a 9-2 spurt, capped by Cody Mitchell's 3-pointer that made it 52-39 with 2:22 remaining.

"We finished the way we should've finished at their last place last time," Woods said of his team's 88-84 triple-overtime loss to Geneva back on Jan. 19. "It's a constant, daily battle to improve.

"It's a great momentum builder for us going into next week (regional tournament)."

The Saints also received a stellar all-around effort from 6-foot-5 senior forward Justin Hardy, who finished with 13 points, a game-high 13 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals.

Hardy found senior teammate Alec Champine (6 points, 3 assists) with pinpoint passes for 3 layups over the final 4 ½ minutes as the Saints seized control.

"At the start of the year, I kind of had the mindset of having to be better than I was last year," said Hardy. "At some point, I've had to realize that I don't care how good I am - it's how good we are.

"If I'm not helping my teammates be the best we can be, then it doesn't matter."

Trailing 14-12 late in the opening quarter, the Saints held Geneva without a basket for more than 6 minutes during a 15-0 run that featured a 3-pointer by sophomore Aidan Sullivan and Hardy's muscle-up, 3-point play.

St. Charles East led 30-20 at halftime.

"I think that arguably it was our best defensive effort all year," said Woods, whose team also won the rebounding battle, 39-27. "They have a great system in place. You have to be locked in and focused for 32 minutes to be able to defend that."

"We were really prepared," added Hardy. "We felt like we knew what was coming."

Zach Robinson chipped in with 12 points for the Saints.

Jack Hood added 15 points, including the Vikings' only three 3-point baskets.

"I thought we had some open looks but we didn't shoot it well," said Hennig.