Sweet-shooting Geneva sinks Bartlett

Chris Suger said his goal was to make a modest contribution in his first home game for the Geneva basketball team Tuesday night.

The last thing the 6-foot-5 sophomore expected was to hear a fired-up student section chanting "Chris, Chris, Chris, Chris" in the second quarter of a 56-38 nonconference win over Bartlett.

Such things happen when a player like Suger comes off the bench and sinks his first four 3-point attempts in front of the faithful.

"I mean, it's crazy. I didn't think it would happen this year," said Suger, who last season played on the sophomore team as a freshman. "It's fun. It's definitely fun. It's a new experience for me."

First-half accuracy by Geneva (4-1) was not limited to Suger, who led the Vikings with 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting from long range.

Junior Dylan Fuzak (6-foot-9) sank three 3-pointers in the first half and senior Josh Preston and junior Nathan Valentine each buried a shot from beyond the arc. Geneva made 9 of 15 from 3-point range in the first half in taking a 43-15 lead.

"I felt like if we just ran our sets and got the right people open, we could hit our shots," said Fuzak, who finished with 9 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. "We're pretty unselfish with the ball and we have confidence in each other. It's not that hard to share the ball on this team."

The leading scorer for Bartlett (1-4) was 6-foot-10 sophomore Conrad Luczynski. He scored 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting and grabbed 4 rebounds. It wasn't enough to offset Geneva's first-half bombing run.

"We came out and we played into their type of game," Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "We didn't defend their sets very well like we had talked about. We gave them open looks for three and we gave up dribble penetration, which opened up threes. Pretty much everything you don't want to do against a team like this on their home floor, we gave them that kind of start."

Preston scored 11 points, including two dunks, and senior guard Drew Johnson tallied 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting for Geneva, which opens DuKane Conference play at home Friday against Wheaton Warrenville South.

Hayden Angell had 6 points for Bartlett, which begins Upstate Eight Conference play at home Thursday against West Chicago.