Geneva gets back on track

St. Charles East was the correct response.

Geneva was looking for a solution Saturday to Thursday's DuKane Conference loss that dimmed the Viking's chance for the league title.

An intense Geneva squad overwhelmed the host Saints, 67-44, to return to the win column.

"We talked about being more determined before the game," Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. 'We needed an answer for Thursday's game for sure."

The Saints sank the game's first basket on an Olivia Keifer putback but after that it was all Geneva. Kate Palmer closed out the Vikings' first quarter scoring with three straight layups for an 18-10 lead. The junior led all scorers with 25 points.

Geneva (18-6, 8-2) widened its margin to 38-16 at halftime.

"We wanted to get out and run. We are athletic enough to do that and our kids did a nice job of that," Meadows said. "When we can do it and do it well, we look like a pretty good team."

St. Charles East (8-19, 3-7) had a hard time scoring in the first half, connecting on 8 of 26 shots.

"We missed a bunch of layups. I think the total was 10 or 12," said East coach Aubree Schuett. "That goes to that every possession matters conversation - that was also a contributing factor to the loss."

Geneva's Lindsay Blackmore was back in action after missing last Thursday's game due to illness. The Colgate commit scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds in limited play.

"I am very glad to see her back. She's not healthy by any means but she gutted it out today," Meadows said. "We are a much better team with her so she is a huge piece of us."

Both teams scored 15 points in the third quarter giving the Vikings a 53-31 lead to start the fourth quarter.

Meadows was also pleased with her team's defensive effort.

"We were talking more tonight (on defense). Which was good," the Geneva coach said. "We've got to communicate on screens and I felt like I could hear our kids talking tonight."

Elle McCaslin led the Saints' offense with 19 points.

"We made some mistakes and got down and I think did some things that we used to do. So this is an opportunity for us to reset." said Schuett. "We having been playing really good basketball the last two and a half weeks collectively as a unit. We'll get right back there. I'm not concerned."