Valentine's heroics lift Geneva

Nathan Valentine was simply trying to win the game.

The Geneva senior guard knew he was scorching hot from the field. All he needed was just a few inches of space, and his shot would take care of the rest.

With under two seconds left, Valentine sank his ninth 3-pointer to cap off a stunning 40-39 win over St. Charles North on Wednesday.

Valentine, who scored 33 of Geneva's 40 points, delivered his second scintillating performance of the season that just started. Against Bartlett, he scored 28 points, and hit the game-winning shot in the final seconds.

On Wednesday, he did it again.

"Sure, I realized I was hot," Valentine said. "I'm not trying to score as many points as I can; I'm just trying to do whatever we can for our team to win. We just got it done, barely."

An astute observation by Valentine at halftime perhaps made much of the difference. The North Stars defensively rolled underneath ball screens, leaving Valentine room to operate.

"I don't know why they were," Valentine said. "I just had to take advantage of that. So, when they went under (for my final shot), I feel pretty comfortable from the volleyball (line) range. That's just a shot I work on."

Valentine sank his eighth 3 with 2:13 left to tie the game at 37-37 to erase a North Stars' lead that they held from the game's opening minutes.

With 30 seconds left, North Stars junior Jude Love corralled a steal off a Geneva inbound pass, which Ethan Marlowe converted for North's last lead at 39-37.

Valentine, an Illinois Wesleyan recruit, shook loose from the North Stars' defense for the game-winner. It allowed Geneva to overcome a rough first half offensively in which the Vikings trailed 17-9 at halftime. Valentine scored seven of Geneva's nine first-half points.

"This group never gives up. That's one thing about is, is we always fight through adversity," Valentine said. "We knew, at the end of the half, we just had to get it, got to win this quarter, win this quarter. Fighting through adversity, it's what we're good at."

"He's a gym rat," Geneva coach Scott Hennig said of Valentine. "He's kind of followed that (Mitch) Mascari, (Jack) McDonald role: the guys that just love being in the gym. He likes to play. I told the Illinois Wesleyan coaches: 'You're getting a kid that just loves to play basketball. No matter how you use him, you're just going to love having him.'"

Valentine opened the second half with a 3 and ended the quarter with three more to pull the Vikings (4-1, 2-1) within seven going into the fourth quarter. Valentine, who had 21 points at that point, was undeterred and trusted his shot.

The trust paid off, as he sank all four 3-point attempts in the fourth quarter. The last one, of course, being the biggest.

"What a moment," Valentine said. "It felt great."

Geneva also had contributions from Brian Wrenn (2 points), Chris Suger (3 points) and Dylan Fuzak (2 points).

The North Stars (3-1, 2-1) were left to ponder the learning opportunities presented from the stunning loss.

"There's a million. There's an awful lot of them (teaching moments)," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "This is a tough season to get that in, but we'll get it in. We'll learn from it absolutely. When it stings like this, you tend to remember things. So, we'll learn these lessons and move on."

North Stars senior Jimmy Durocher had 10 points, while junior Justin Hughes proved valuable with 12 points off the bench, all from 3s.

"Justin has always been like that," said Marlowe, who had 13 points and 5 rebounds. "He can shoot the heck out of the ball. He's one of the best shooters on the team.

"We've got to play better together, especially in crunch time, like coach said. There's a lot of teachable moments there," Marlowe continued. "There's a lot of stuff we can learn from together. The defensive end, especially, giving up nine in the first half and triple that in the second."