It’s a moment that Evan Blankenship always dreamed of.

With the Batavia home crowd roaring as the clock was ticking closer to zero and an eventual 62-43 win against Geneva, the senior found himself with the ball in hand and an open lane right to the basket.

So naturally, the 6-foot-6 forward went for the dunk. The result? Absolute pandemonium.

“That might be a top-three moment in my life,” Blankenship said. “I used to go out on a small hoop to practice my dunks. And I always pictured myself against Geneva in a moment just like that.”

Blankenship’s dunk put an exclamation point on a 15-0 run over the final four minutes of the game, helping the Bulldogs snap their four-game losing streak to the Vikings.

“This is a good win against a very good team, and this team is just an incredible group,” Bulldogs coach Jim Nazos said. “They come to the bench and talk about everything. They’re constantly trying to figure things out and not complain or care about who’s scoring or anything. I’m just really happy for all these guys.”

After coming off the bench in the first matchup Dec. 20, a 55-53 loss in double overtime, Blankenship made his presence fully known in his first start in the rivalry, putting up 23 points and adding 11 rebounds for the double-double.

“He’s starting to do a lot more than just shoot for us,” Nazos said. “He’s rebounding, he’s putting shots back in, he’s doing a lot more than just catching and shooting. Him being extremely coachable and open to some things that he’s not as good at and improving on that, he’s done it all year.”

Batavia (17-8 overall, 8-3 DuKane) spent the first half of the fourth quarter with a slim four-point lead. But three consecutive corner 3s from senior Joe Reid (10 points) would quickly start the onslaught to decide the contest.

“I didn’t shoot well the whole game, but I don’t get in my head about that. I just worry about the next shot,” Reid said. “I saw a chance in the corner, hit one. Got a steal and hit two more, got the crowd going, and from there it was game.”

The Vikings threatened for their first lead of the game late in the third quarter, going on an 11-0 run to bring the game to a 39-38 contest with under a minute remaining.

But a putback from Blankenship that turned into an and-one gave the Bulldogs a 42-38 lead into the final stanza, a lead they wouldn’t give up again.

“That was a really big moment there,” Blankenship said. “I saw the 3-pointer coming off the rim, grabbed it, went into the defender and made the shot. I just heard the crowd go wild after.”

Geneva (20-5, 7-3) almost led an impeccable comeback in the contest, trailing by as many as 18 points throughout the first half of play before pulling it to a one-point game. But with limited bench depth and a few starters facing foul trouble, the Vikings couldn’t close out the deal

“We just got off to a bad start and had a couple of empty possessions there in the fourth quarter,” Vikings coach Scott Hennig said. “But I’m really proud of my guys. To be down 29-11 at one point and turn it into being down one or two possessions in the second half, I give my guys a lot of credit. We just ran out of gas at the end.”

Leading the comeback charge was another new face to the starting rosters in junior David Udiowod, who had nine of his 13 points come in the third quarter while adding six rebounds and four steals. Senior Nathan Palmer led the Vikings with 16 points.

“David has been outstanding for us and did some really nice things,” Hennig said. “Palmer played well and Gabe Jensen (eight points) also was great. We just didn’t have that fourth scorer out there. If you’re going to beat teams in this league that are really good, we just need more guys to step up and score the basketball and we just didn’t get that.”