Geneva comes back to beat Glenbard West
Geneva junior Katie Montgomery apologized to coach Sarah Meadows for scoring late in the girls basketball game Tuesday night.
"We got through the press nicely and I just noticed that their trap kind of wasn't hard enough, and I was like, I can get through this," Montgomery said. "Let's try it. And I tried it and I realized I was wide open to the basket, and it just happened to work out in my favor.
"I kind of got nervous there because I heard (Meadows) yelling, 'Pull it out, pull it out.'"
Geneva needed every point it could muster to defeat Glenbard West 51-50 in a nonconference game in Glen Ellyn.
Montgomery's basket with 35 seconds to play gave Geneva a 51-48 lead and immediately followed a Katelyn Heller basket that pulled Glenbard West (16-6) within a point.
"How about that layup at the end, huh?" Meadows asked of Montgomery's basket. "She's like, sorry. I was like, 'Why are you saying sorry?' I just loved her attacking the hoop tonight. I thought she did a great job off the dribble.
"She's our glue. I mean, she is our leader. She can put the ball on her hip and tell kids where she wants them. We're a much better team when Katie is on the floor."
A few minutes earlier it looked like Montgomery wouldn't be on the floor at the end of the game when she hit the floor and clutched her shoulder. She shook off the shock of hitting the floor and returned to the game quickly.
Geneva (14-6) had to fight back from a 14-point second-quarter deficit. Glenbard West beat the Geneva press and took a 25-11 lead with 3:35 left in the period on a Katie O'Shea 3-pointer, part of a 9-0 Hilltoppers run to start the period.
But Geneva started hitting shots and forcing Glenbard West turnovers. The Glenbard West lead at halftime was just 27-26.
"Honestly, in that second quarter we had some girls really step up," Montgomery said. "Kelly (McCloughan), she stepped up big-time. Jenna (Segebrecht) stepped up big-time. Emma Davine. That second-quarter team that they had in, those girls really stepped up, and I was really happy to see it. I know (Cassidy Navigato) and I were sitting in the two-foul club, which wasn't good. But I'm really happy with how we had teammates around us able to step up in that position."
"We're a young team but every game we're getting better. We're learning. We're being tougher. Yeah, we're making progress, for sure," Meadows added.
It was a disappointing result for Glenbard West, which led the two-time defending state champion 44-37 early in the fourth quarter. The teams could see each other again in a Class 4A sectional.
"Any time you lose it hurts and stings, as it should," Hilltoppers coach Kristi Faulkner said, "but I think we showed flashes of playing great basketball and then we turned the ball over too much. Part of that is credit Geneva's defense, and part of that is we have to keep working at it and get better."