Batavia executes late, beats Geneva
Sometimes it helps to have a long memory.
A little more than a month ago, Batavia's girls basketball team suffered a heartbreaking 43-32 loss to Geneva when Vikings junior Lindsay Blackmore sank 3 free throws with 0.8 seconds remaining.
On Friday night, the Bulldogs (14-13, 7-4) returned the favor, executing down the stretch during their 52-46 DuKane Conference triumph over the Vikings (16-10, 8-3) in Geneva.
Three players - Hailey Orman (15 points), Ava Sergio (14 points) and Geddy Rerko (11 points, 8 rebounds) - reached double figures for the Bulldogs, winners of 8 of their last 10 games.
"There's a bunch of really good ball clubs in our area, our conference and our sectional," said Batavia coach Kevin Jensen, "and there's not tons separating anybody.
"We each have some different mismatches we're trying to take advantage of and fortunately, we were able to take advantage of a couple more."
The second half featured 3 ties and 7 lead changes, the last coming on Rerko's 3-pointer from the corner off a feed from Sergio that gave Batavia a 44-42 lead with 4:30 remaining.
"At halftime, we challenged them to play as a team a little more and we definitely did in the second half," said Jensen, whose team trailed 26-21 at the intermission.
"We had a couple extra passes that led to even more open shots."
Sergio added 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocked shots and a steal for the Bulldogs, now a game in back of conference leading Geneva and Wheaton Warrenville South.
"Lindsay (Geneva's Blackmore) and a couple girls were doubling me down low so I saw Geddy (Rerko) and Hailey (Orman) outside," said Sergio. "I wanted to make the extra pass."
Golden (5 assists) iced the game with 4 straight free throws over the final 17 seconds.
"It felt good to hold on to this one," admitted Jensen. "I think we were 6-11 at one point and now we're 14-13. That's a decent run with wins over St. Charles North, Wheaton North, Wheaton Warrenville South and now Geneva.
"We hope we can keep this moving forward."
The win felt extra special for Sergio.
"Personally, I've never beaten Geneva," she said. "I knew we could do it. The way we lost the last game (against Geneva) was pretty heartbreaking. We wanted it so badly. It was awesome."
Blackmore led the Vikings with 15 points and 7 rebounds while junior Emma Kornak came off the bench to add 13 points - 12 of them coming during Geneva's 17-7 second-quarter surge, including three 3-pointers.
"Emma played huge for us," said Geneva coach Sarah Meadows. "I'm happy for her. She showed up at the right time and hit some big-time shots."
The Vikings have now lost 4 of their last 6.
"We're struggling offensively - that's not a secret," said Meadows, "and a lot of that is mental in my opinion. As soon as they hit a couple shots, that's going to go away."