Geneva topples St. Viator in Wheeling semifinals
Giant killers.
That's the reputation that the Geneva boys basketball team is earning.
On Thursday at the Wheeling Wildcat Hardwood Classic, the Vikings took down Niles North, the defending tournament champion.
On Friday, another top-shelf team bit the dust at the hands of Geneva.
The Vikings bounced St. Viator, one of the best teams in the area and a favorite to win the 2018 title at Wheeling, in the semifinals, 54-41.
The victory keeps Geneva undefeated at 12-0.
St. Viator had lost only one game prior to facing Geneva and is now 12-2 on the season.
The Vikings will now face Fremd, a 47-44 winner over Glenbrook South in the other semifinal Wheeling, at 8:45 p.m. today for the tournament championship.
"When the bracket came out, we circled this game. We really wanted it," said Geneva senior guard Jack McDonald, who tied fellow senior guard Mitch Mascari for team-high scoring honors with 14 points. "A lot of people say that we don't play that tough of competition with our schedule. There aren't a lot of ranked teams where we live. And I think coming here and getting some big wins is going to open some eyes. When we come here and play these top teams and take them down, it proves a point."
Geneva took a 2-point lead into halftime (23-21) on a huge 3-pointer by McDonald to end the second quarter. Then the Vikings steadily pulled away in the second half, outscoring St. Viator 31-20 over the third and fourth quarters.
"I thought defensively, we were outstanding," Geneva coach Scott Hennig said. "I felt like we made them work for everything that they got. Even the shots they made. I'm just so proud of my kids. This might be (Geneva's best defensive effort of the season)."
Geneva forced St. Viator into a 36 percent shooting clip from the floor, while making 60 percent of its own shots.
"Once they took the lead, we kind of panicked a little bit," St. Viator coach Quin Hayes said. "And credit to (Geneva), they stayed poised. They also played really well defensively. And we also took a lot of bad shots tonight, a lot of uncharacteristic shots for us."
Senior guard Jeremiah Hernandez, who signed to play basketball next year at Kent State, finished with 23 points for St. Viator but was the Lions' only scorer in double-figures.
"It just wasn't our night and it was their night for sure," Hernandez said. "They played overall a great basketball game. Their energy was there. Their crowd was into it.
"This just humbles us. We know we probably needed a hit in the face because we were feeling ourselves a little bit. We were getting a lot of accolades for stuff and for a team to come out here and do that to us is just a wake-up call for us."