Presenting the 2021-2022 Fox All-Area Girls Basketball Team

The consensus on Geneva junior girls basketball standout Cassidy Arni is this: She’s a hot mess for opposing defenses to contain.

St. Charles East took its first lead early in the second quarter Tuesday against No. 1 seed Geneva in the Class 4A Bartlett sectional semifinals.The Vikings had almost three quarters to take back control of the game, and do to the Saints what they had in a pair of double-digit regular season victories.But the Saints had the answer — often provided by senior guard Torrie Kortan — for every one of Geneva’s runs. The Vikings never regained the lead, and fourth-seed St. Charles East held on for a 43-42 upset win over a tradition-rich program that has caused them plenty of frustration through the years. “I told them your moms and dads came to support you. Everyone else came to watch you lose,” said Saints coach Josh Foster, who took over the team in January. “Let’s go out there and ruin people’s night. That’s why we came was to ruin someone’s night, and we’ll try to ruin someone else’s night on Thursday.”That would be Wheaton North (22-7), another DuKane Conference rival who St. Charles East (21-6) will play for the sectional championship. The teams split this season.Like her new coach, Kortan never lost confidence despite the lack of regular season success against Geneva.“We knew if we put pressure on them they would eventually fold because usually they are never down like that,” said Kortan, who led the Saints with 16 points.“Everyone always just sees the name on their shirt and gives them the game. We didn’t give them the game this time. Last two times we played them we shot ourselves in the foot. I feel in the end tonight it was us making more hustle plays. We wanted it more I feel like.”Geneva (25-5) had won 21 of its last 22 games including 14 in a row. That streak included 77-64 and 68-52 wins over the Saints.The Vikings didn’t come close to that offensive output Tuesday. Caroline Madden banked in a 3-pointer to give Geneva a 5-0 lead to start the game — then they missed their next 16 from beyond the arc. The Vikings shot just 26.2% (16 for 61) from the field and also hurt themselves by making just 7 of 14 free throws.“That’s something we normally are good at,” Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said of the 3-point misses. “We are good at getting to the rim and we are good at kicking it out and hitting the 3. They just weren’t falling. We didn’t shoot well at the free-throw line. You give up 7 points there in a close game and it’s huge.”Trailing 11-6 after one quarter, the Saints scored the first seven points of the second quarter. Kortan’s steal and assist to sophomore Alexis Maridis for a layup put St. Charles East up 13-11 in what turned out to be the only lead change of the game.Cali Perez opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer for the Saints to make it 25-16, their biggest lead. Geneva turned up its defensive pressure, and after not forcing a single turnover in the first half, got 11 in the second.That helped the Vikings pull even at 27-27 on Zosia Wrobel’s layup after a steal and assist by Rilee Hasegawa. Kortan answered with a conventional 3-point play and then a 3-point shot as the Saints took a 33-31 lead to the fourth quarter.Geneva tied the game twice in the fourth, the final time when Cassidy Arni finally ended the Vikings’ 3-point drought with a corner 3 to make it 37-37 with 2:14 to go.Emma Yakey immediately put the Saints up again with a long 3-pointer of her own on a Kortan assist. Lexi DiOrio split free throws for a 41-37 lead at 1:18. Arni’s drive brought the Vikings within 41-39, and they fouled Kortan with :17.5 left for pressure free throws.

Forty-five seconds into Friday night’s Class 4A regional championship at Geneva, it looked like the host Vikings would have an easy time winning their 13th regional in a row. Schaumburg had turned the ball over three times in a row and Geneva was up 7-0.

Geneva’s 13-point lead with 5:33 left against Sycamore evaporated to two in the closing seconds as the Spartans seemed poised for a second comeback win against the Vikings this year.But Caroline Madden came up with a steal to keep the Spartans from tying or winning the game, then Rilee Hasegawa sunk a pair of free throws to seal a 62-58 win on Thursday in the regular-season finale for both teams.

While cliché in nature, the old “everybody is 0-0 at the start of the playoffs” is a truthful statement.A deeper meaning, as South Elgin girls basketball coach Dan Mandernack explained, is don’t overlook anybody or uniforms might be turned in the next day.

Geneva’s size — starting three 6-footers and another at 5-11 — is a big reason the Vikings entered Saturday’s home finale at 20-4 having just secured the No. 1 seed at the Class 4A Bartlett sectional.Yet it was Rilee Hasegawa, standing just 5-2, who came off the bench and impacted the game as much as all her talented, taller teammates.

In a sign of the times, scouting has become more convenient for St. Charles East girls basketball coach Josh Foster — like most coaches.Which certainly doesn’t make playing Geneva any easier.“Now it’s so easy to watch film with Hudl and this and that, and I’ve watched every conference game,” Foster said Thursday night following a 75-64 loss to Geneva that clinched a share of the DuKane Conference championship for the Vikings.“They just find a way to win. You have that many skilled players, somebody steps up. They are very balanced. It makes it tough to win against a team like that.”The Vikings (20-4, 12-0) flashed that balance while not only clinching a share of the title but ending a 6-game winning streak for St. Charles East (16-6. 7-5).Junior Lauren Slagle led four Geneva players in double figures with 23 points and also grabbed 7 rebounds. The Vikings can clinch the DuKane outright by beating either Wheaton North on Saturday or Lake Park next week.“Our conference, there are so many individual girls who are amazing. We are grateful to have a good conference because it gets us ready for regional, sectionals. The competition is amazing,” Slagle said.“Tonight, we came out strong. We have something to prove, we want to be undefeated in conference. Tonight we played together,”The Saints took a couple early leads, the final one coming at 12-9 when Torrie Kortan hit a 3-pointer midway through a high-scoring first quarter.Geneva quickly answered with back-to-back baskets by Slagle to go up 13-12, and the Vikings didn’t trail again. A putback by Slagle, Cassidy Arni’s layup and a 3-pointer by Leah Palmer completed a 12-0 Geneva run for a 21-12 lead, which stood at 23-14 after the first quarter.A 3-pointer from Saints sophomore Lexi Diorio early in the second quarter closed the gap to 23-21, but the Vikings soon heated up again with that balanced attack and by halftime led 33-24. The margin stood at 55-40 through three quarters and the Saints got no closer than 7 points in the fourth.“Our team has so much chemistry on and off the court,” Slagle said. “Our hunger and our passion as a team, on and off the court, we are best friends. I think that helps. We come out and we fight.”Zosia Wrobel and Palmer followed Slagle with 17 points each, Arni scored 11 with 8 rebounds and 5 assists, and Caroline Madden hit a pair of 3-pointers while scoring 8.“It wasn’t pretty but we got through it,” Vikings coach Sarah Meadows said. “We are putting it together. There are times we have to be a little more disciplined, a little more under control. Once you get into postseason you are going to have to be able to execute in the half court. You aren’t going to be able to run and gun. We have to grow a little bit there.”Kortan led the Saints with 21 points and 5 rebounds. Diorio scored 19 points and Cali Papez had 12.“We are finding our stride,” Foster said. “We have to start another streak here. “I told the girls they (Geneva) have been winning for a long time, you aren’t going to get a majority of the calls or the bounces. They are tough. They are all big and skilled. I thought if the shots we normally make would have gone in in the second and third quarters we would have won the game.”

Prairie Ridge hoped for a second fantastic finish in less than 24 hours in its own gym as it worked the ball around against Geneva in the final minute of regulation.

Cassidy Arni and Zosia Wrobel, together, present a conundrum most opponents just can’t contend with. Wrobel scored 19 points and Arni 17, and they combined to hit seven 3-pointers. That and Geneva’s stingy second-half defense allowed the Vikings to erase an early nine-point deficit and go on to a 50-39 win over Batavia to remain unbeaten in the DuKane Conference.

Mike Tomczak was hoping to see Geneva miss a shot.The Vikings shot a blistering 50% from the field in the first half Thursday night against his St. Charles North girls basketball team and held a 16-point halftime advantage.Tomczak got his wish after halftime as his North Stars clawed back, but it was too much Cassidy Arni and Geneva timely shooting as the Vikings pulled away for a 66-50 victory to remain unbeaten in DuKane Conference play.Arni finished with a game-high 23 points and five steals. Her final basket of the night was a 3-pointer that aided a 13-1 run to finish the game after St. Charles North cut its deficit just four.“We were hoping they weren’t going to make every shot in the second half,” Tomczak said. “It certainly seemed like they did in the first half… We knew if we didn’t make a push early on [in the third quarter], that game could have gotten ugly. We didn’t finish it all the way, but I’m proud of how we responded.”“We knew they were going to come at us strong,” Arni said.” [St. Charles North] is a great team. I think that’s something we need to improve on, but I think we did a good job of bringing back that energy… I think we just had to keep each other up and just play together. We play our best when we play team ball.”Speaking of team ball, the Vikings (18-4, 10-0 DuKane Conference) had six of its seven players score points in Thursday night’s win, including Zosia Wrobel (17 points) and Leah Palmer (16) joining Arni in double figures.Geneva used its team defense to hold the North Stars (14-11, 4-6) scoreless over the final 4:22 of action. The North Stars didn’t make a shot from the field in the final 7:33 of Thursday’s loss.Alyssa Hughes matched Arni with 23 points of her own in defeat for St. Charles North in trying to bring the North Stars back from a deficit that grew to as big as 18 in the first half.“I think that’s been the story of our season,” Tomczak said. ”We start a little slower, dig ourselves a hole and fight like crazy to come back. We’re using everything we have to come back, but we run out of gas. You can’t do that against teams of this caliber.”While the Vikings cooled down to shoot 37% in the second half, it relied on the solid defensive effort to hold off a strong third-quarter effort from the North Stars.When Geneva needed it most, it got back to playing theunselfish basketball that has kept it unbeaten through conference play.“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. “[St. Charles North] plays us tough each and every time we face them. We battle with them every game and we knew it was coming. We need to do abetter job of executing, but we’re starting to get there.”“I think we just got back to not taking the first shot,” Wrobel said of her team’s response. “When we pass the ball four or five times,the defense loses focus or can get lazy and we can get a wide open layup orshot… We can all shoot so it can be really hard to guard.”Reagan Sipla added 12 points in the loss for the North Stars.

Who has the hottest of hot hands right now in the Fox Valley area?

If someone watching Tuesday’s St. Charles East and Geneva girls basketball game was to say that the Vikings once trailed by eight points, it would have been hard to believe.There are hot streaks and then there was Geneva in the second quarter.

Leah Palmer earned her redemptive moment.Geneva sophomore’s forward missed two free throws with 26.7 seconds left as the Vikings nursed a two-point lead Saturday at Wheaton North. Twenty-one seconds later, it was Palmer again on the line in a game-clinching situation.She drained both.

Brianna Wooldridge is officially back. Three years ago, in her freshman season, Wooldridge established herself as one of the emerging players in the state. Wooldridge scored a game-high 23 points to go along with 5 rebounds and 3 assists to power a second-half surge that led Fremd to an improbable 46-40 win over Geneva in the championship game of the inaugural Morton College Girls Basketball Christmas Tournament Thursday.

Benet and Geneva will always be linked together in Illinois girls basketball history.Over the past decade, in Class 4A, the Redwings and Vikings are considered royalty in the sport.Both teams recently won their first state title in program history, and doubled their pleasure with back-to-back championships.Again this season, the Redwings and Vikings are among the top teams in contention for a 4A state title.

Geneva played two polar opposite teams in the first two days of the inaugural Morton College Girls Basketball Christmas Tournament. The end result was the same in each case: a victory. The Vikings scored 23 points in the third quarter to cruise to a 74-56 win over Rolling Meadows in Cicero.

Geneva junior forward Leah Palmer watched the play unfold exactly how it was planned.The Vikings were seconds away from dropping their fourth game of the season in the opening round of the 1st Annual Morton College Girls Basketball Christmas Tournament.All game long, the Vikings were chasing Deerfield’s talented but diminutive trio of guards — junior Lexi Kerstein and freshmen Aubrey Galvan and Nikki Kerstein.The Warriors’ three guards made the Vikings work for every basket, applying relentless ball pressure on defense and pushing the pace on the offensive end in an attempt to wear them out.But the Vikings slowly erased a six-point deficit by clamping down on defense, getting a chance in the final minute to pull off a comeback victory. Palmer came through in the clutch, scoring a basket with 25 seconds left to lift the Vikings to a 65-63 victory over the Warriors.

Here’s a look at where Fox area schools are headed for girls basketball holiday tournaments, including St. Charles East, Huntley and Burlington Central playing at Montini, and Dundee-Crown hosting its annual Komaromy Classic.

The frenetic pace and rapid scoring seemed more applicable to a track meet than a girls basketball game Friday night in Geneva.The second half of the DuKane Conference girls preliminary between Batavia and Geneva would slow considerably–at least for the scorekeeper manning the clock.In the end, however, there was one constant in the 61-52 Geneva victory.

Missing starters Lauren Slagle and Rilee Hasegawa, Geneva’s depth — Chrystiana Pagonis, Caitlin Cassidy and Kinsey Gracey — played a key role in the Vikings’ 65-60 DuKane Conference victory. The Vikings improved to 6-3, 3-0.

Zosia Wrobel loves playing against Wheaton Warrenville South. Geneva’s 6-foot senior forward tamed the Tigers for 20 points on Tuesday night to lead the Vikings to a 52-28 romp in Geneva – and seems to be at her absolute best when facing the DuKane Conference foe. Wrobel, who scored a career-high 25 against the Tigers when the teams last played in Mach, knocked down four of her six three-pointers in the first quarter as the Vikings opened up a 10-0 lead and never looked back.

Here’s a look at some of the highlights of the first few weeks of the girls basketball season in the Fox area, including a 6-0 start for South Elgin and updates at Geneva, Batavia, Huntley and more.

Carmel Catholic hung on for a 42-36 girls basketball win over Geneva Saturday night.

Sycamore’s Faith Feuerbach delivered the final blow in Geneva’s 48-47 loss in the Burlington Central Thanksgiving Tournament title game Saturday. The senior’s long 3-point basket put Sycamore ahead for the first time with 6.5 seconds left on the clock. The trey, launched from the volleyball attack line, ended up being the winning bucket. However, it was a one-sided third quarter, and a back-and-forth final period, that set up the dramatic finish.

Burlington Central made 4 of 5 shots from the field, including 3 of 4 3-pointers, and hit 6 of 9 free throws in the first quarter. Yet the Rockets still found themselves trailing Geneva, 20-17, after 8 minutes. That’s how tough the Vikings were. Geneva then proceeded to blow the game open in the second quarter, outscoring Central 18-4 en route to a 69-48 win and a spot in the championship game of the Burlington Central Thanksgiving Tournament.

From the opening tip Thursday, Lauren Slagle started to show signs of what she brings to the court for Geneva. Whether it was finding room for seven rebounds or using her 6-foot-1 length for 20 points in the paint in Geneva‘s 63-30 victory over Kaneland, the Vikings have yet another player to add to its list of contributors.

Here’s a look at the girls basketball season in the DuKane