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Geneva grads square off in basketball, football

Faithful Off at College reader Joe Oetter chimes in with a pair of recent college basketball and football contests that involved Fox Valley-area athletes on opposite sides of the court/field, more specifically Geneva-on-Geneva competition.

More recently, ESPN+ showed a Toledo-Wright State men's basketball game that featured Geneva alums Nate Navigato (Toledo) against Loudon Love (Wright State).

In that contest, Wright State was a 84-74 winner with Love scoring 14 points and registering a double-double with 12 rebounds. He also shot 7-for-10 from the field. Navigato scored 15 points, hit three 3-pointers and shot 4-for-4 from the free-throw line.

On the season, Love has played in 11 games and is averaging 13.5 points and 8.7 rebounds per game and has registered a team-high 15 blocks. Love is shooting .528 from the field.

Navigato has played in 11 games for 10-1 Toledo and is averaging 13.3 points (second on the team) to go with 3.6 rebounds per game. He's shooting .500 from the field (49-for-98) and 37-for-70 from the 3-point line (.529). Navigato also is shooting .917 from the free-throw line and has 36 assists.

But in that same contest, St. Charles East alum Cole Gentry dropped in 30 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the field and 4-of-7 shooting from the 3-point line. Gentry also was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line.

Earlier in the season, another duo of Geneva alums squared off on the gridiron when Dayton's Ryan Skibinski played against Butler's Pace Temple.

In that game, Skibinski was the star on the receiving end, catching 5 balls for 135 yards and 2 scores. He caught touchdown passes of 80 and 17 yards and helped Dayton to a 38-28 win over Butler.

Temple finished with 5 catches for 55 yards.

For the season, Skibinski appeared in 11 games and caught 33 passes for 497 yards and 5 touchdowns. He averaged 15.1 yards per catch.

Temple had a productive season for Butler. He appeared in 11 games and caught an impressive 85 passes for 1,097 yards and 9 touchdowns. He averaged 12.9 yards per catch and almost 100 receiving yards (99.7) per game. He had a long catch of 54 yards.

Carlson at Aurora University: Kaneland alum Ty Carlson has been making an impact for the Aurora University men's basketball team.

In his senior season, Carlson was coming off a 2017-2018 campaign where he was the team's runner-up in points (422), rebounds (140), assists (59) and steals (25).

With Carlson back, Aurora was picked to finish first in a preseason poll of Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference head coaches and sports information directors.

In his season debut against visiting Millikin, Carlson had 12 points and 4 rebounds. Through this past weekend, Carlson is fourth on the team in scoring at 11.4 points a contest. He's part of a balanced Aurora roster that has seven players averaging 10 or more points.

Carlson has been in double figures in five of the squad's seven games and is averaging 31 minutes a contest. He's shooting .406 from the field and .381 from the 3-point line with 16 makes in 42 tries. He's also hitting on 63.2 percent of his free throws and is second on the team in assists with 20.

Carlson hit for a season-high 21 points in a game against Concordia Wisconsin.

Ross at Olivet Nazarene: Burlington Central graduate Kayla Ross is a member of the Olivet Nazarene women's basketball team.

Through Monday, Ross had played in all 14 of the team's games and was contributing in multiple facets. Ross was averaging 7.4 points and 5.8 rebounds, while leading the team in steals with 47 and assists with 76. She also had only 43 turnovers against those 76 assists. Olivet was 7-7 overall and 4-3 in conference play to start the week.

Orange at Augustana: Jacobs graduate Chrishawn Orange is averaging 12.2 points for the Augustana men's basketball team that is off to a hot 8-1 start. Orange is shooting .442 from the field and .643 from the free-throw line. He also is averaging 3.7 rebounds and has 22 assists and 18 blocked shots.

Off at College wants your help: Send information and/or statistics on Fox Valley-area athletes playing collegiately to Mike Miazga at mjm890@gmail.com. Winter sports submissions and any season-ending fall information is encouraged.

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