New defense helps Geneva boys basketball to OT victory over Batavia

BATAVIA – A creative game plan and mounting confidence throughout the game allowed the Geneva boys basketball team to notch what undoubtedly will stand as one of its most gratifying victories of the season.

Playing without leading scorer and rebounder Dan Trimble, the Vikings played like anything but the heavy underdogs they were on Thursday night, zapping archrival Batavia, 58-46, in overtime.

“If there were odds-makers on this, I’m sure that we were the dark horse – big dark horse,” Geneva coach Phil Ralston said. “It was pitch black on that one. But we told our kids coming into this game, they had a chance to really step it up.”

Geneva (8-12, 3-2 Upstate Eight Conference River) led, 35-32, entering the fourth quarter, and after an uneventful first half of the quarter, a furious finish ensued. The Bulldogs missed their first seven shots of the quarter before Zach Strittmatter scored on a stick-back to cut the Vikings’ lead to 37-34 at the 3:15 mark.

Geneva forward Brendan Leahy converted a three-point play to make it 40-34, but the Bulldogs’ Cole Gardner and Elliott Vaughn muscled up for the next six points to tie the score at 40.

Leahy again flashed his soft touch around the rim by converting a Dan Hince feed for a 42-40 Geneva lead with about a minute to go, but Vaughn answered with a put-back to tie the score at 42. Leahy couldn’t hit a lean-in jumper at the horn to prevent overtime.

The Vikings owned the extra period, with three-pointers by Ryan Willing and Marcus Stierwalt supplying a quick cushion, and steady free throw shooting doing the rest.

“With Ryan Willing’s three and Marcus’ three to start off overtime, it was big,” Hince said. “All I can say it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun playing overtime against Batavia.”

The Bulldogs (8-8, 3-3 UEC River) looked tentative offensively for much of OT.

“In overtime I thought we kind of reverted back to the way we played in the first quarter,” said Batavia coach Jim Roberts, who was honored before the game for his pending induction into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame. “Hesitant, straight-legged, and they took the fight to us.”

While the loss of Trimble – who missed his second straight full game after suffering a concussion – necessitated teammates to pick up scoring slack, perhaps the biggest predicament against Batavia was interior defense. The 6-foot-7 Trimble was not around to help fend off Batavia post standouts Vaughn and Gardner, but a gimmicky 1-3 chase defense implemented for the game paid great dividends.

The defense allowed the Vikings to continually run a defender at Batavia sniper Jesse Coffey while simultaneously clogging the lane, forcing Batavia’s top threats to take heavily contested shots or make its secondary scoring threats carry the load.

“I think it frustrated Coffey, and that was the key,” Ralston said. “We knew we had to neutralize Gardner and Vaughn as much as possible and take Coffey out of the game, and I thought by and large the kids did that.”

Ralston said he first picked up the defense as an assistant at Deerfield, when an opponent succeeded in defending his team that way in the postseason. He acknowledged being unsure how well the Vikings grasped the defense leading up to the game.

“Sometimes it’s not always about how effective or ineffective you do it in practice, it’s how you execute it in a game, and we executed it very well in the game,” Ralston said. “And I think the other part, I don’t think they were ready to see that from us. I don’t think they ever really truly figured it out.”

Geneva used an 8-0 run to close the first half, capped by a leaning Stierwalt jumper, to take a 26-16 halftime lead. Leahy (13 points), Stierwalt (11) and Hince (10) sparked the Vikings’ offense. Leahy and Stierwalt were a combined 8-for-10 from the floor.

Vaughn (14 points, nine rebounds), Gardner (10 points, eight rebounds) and Coffey (10 points) paced Batavia, which was coming off an impressive three-point loss to state-ranked Proviso East.

Geneva lacks the talent of Proviso East, but the Vikings’ will to win was unquestioned on Thursday.

“This is one of those games where we had both effort and execution, and we certainly needed it tonight without our horse,” Ralston said.