Girls Basketball: Zosia Wrobel’s hot hand keys Geneva to blowout over Wheaton Warrenville South

GENEVA – 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.

[ Photos: Geneva vs. Wheaton Warrenville South basketball ]

“That was my career high at Wheaton so I had the same mentality that I think this is my lucky team,” Wrobel said. “So I came out really hot and I was happy I was able to continue that from last time.”

Wrobel scored 14 in the fourth quarter in the previous meeting so with 12 more in the first quarter she enjoyed a half-game stretch where she scored 26 points in 16 minutes against them.

“She loves Wheaton Warrenville South, and we joked about it,” Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. “That was exactly the start we want in every game. It was good. We needed to bring some energy and needed the ‘W’ and we got it. We held them to 11 at half in a varsity game so I thought out kids played well on the defensive side as well.”

Wheaton Warrenville South (4-4, 0-2) never got closer than 10-3.

“Geneva is Geneva; they’re the same they were 10 years ago,” Tigers coach Rob Kroehnke said. “They’re the same size kids and they can all shoot it. That hasn’t changed.”

The Tigers, on the other hand, are struggling to score. Senior Lily Huntzinger and freshman Emily Troia each had eight points.

“We’ve got to find five kids who can score because you can’t shoot 20% against good teams and that’s sort of the hole we dug,” Kroehnke said. “You’re not giving yourself a shot.”

Wrobel found her shot right away as her second three-pointer of the game wasn’t even three minutes into the action, but it gave the Vikings a quick 10-0 lead.

“Recently I haven’t been making my shots so I’m sure they watched film on me and saw I wasn’t making them so they probably kind of sagged off a little bit in the beginning,” she said. “I’m glad I could get hot for this game. After you hit the first three you get that adrenalin pumping and it’s always nice to play on your home court when you’re hot.”

Shots didn’t fall in Geneva’s game against a bigger and undefeated Carmel team on Saturday, but on Tuesday Wrobel was in her groove against another zone. Cassidy Arni added 15 points and Leah Palmer contributed 10 while the team’s defensive pressure held the Tigers to three baskets in the first half.

“We didn’t get hot (against Carmel) but they both took away the inside paint,” Arni said. “We couldn’t do much inside again so the threes really helped. Once we got the lead early we just kept going.”