As Linnea Popp’s 3-pointer arced toward the basket, she thought it looked off. But as it banked off the backboard and through the net, all she could do was smile.

“I wasn’t even going to call bank,” she said, “because their student section would’ve trolled me.”

That was how it went in Thursday’s Class 3A Dixon Regional championship. While Geneva made key plays, Dixon suffered one of its worst shooting nights of the season in a 49-40 Vikings victory.

With its sixth in win the last seven games, Geneva (16-14) advances to next week’s Crystal Lake Central sectional semifinal against Boylan. It’s the Vikings’ first 3A regional crown, and the 16th in the last 17 seasons (all the rest were in 4A) after they came up short last season.

“It’s huge to get a regional back to Geneva,” Popp said. “We know that’s the culture here, and it was really disappointing to not get that last year. But it’s so great to have it back.”

“We said right before we took the court, ‘Bring it back home!’” coach Sarah Meadows said. “It’s awesome. I’m super proud.”

Geneva led 19-9 two minutes into the second quarter. Five of its first six baskets were 3-pointers, from four different players.

Meanwhile, Dixon (29-4) couldn’t get shots to fall from the perimeter. It missed its first seven 3-point attempts, finished the first half 1 for 10, and ended just 2 for 19 (10.5%).

“That’s what it came down to was they made shots when they needed to and we had a bad shooting night,” Dixon coach Luke Ravlin said. “Sometimes that’s the way basketball is.”

The Duchesses did damage inside, driving to the rim for layups and crashing the offensive glass for putbacks. They turned that 10-point deficit into a 27-24 lead midway through the third quarter with an 18-5 run over a span of 8:53.

But Geneva responded with an 8-2 surge to regain the lead 32-29 in the first minute of the fourth quarter, then outscored Dixon 17-9 over the final 3:53.

Popp’s bank shot sparked that final surge, then she hit another 3 a minute later before assisting on a pair of Emma Peterson layups to break the Dixon full-court press.

“They’re a super-talented team, and I think just staying together and not panicking when things were going bad was the key. Continuing to trust in each other, that was the main basis on how we kept it together,” Popp said. “We just kind of lost it for a bit there, but we’re experienced, we love playing together, we play well together and we just rely on our core when that happens.”

Popp’s 13 points and six assists were game highs, and she also had four rebounds. Adelyn Estabrook added 11 points, eight rebounds and three assists, Keira McCann had nine points, three assists and two steals and Peterson chipped in eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

“We made plays, and we made our free throws [at the end], and sometimes we don’t do that, so that was huge for us,” Meadows said. “Dixon is a great team, super physical – more physical than I thought they would be, to be honest – but our kids made big shots.

“Defensively, we knew Dixon’s kids are great shooters, and we knew we had to take at least one of them away, and our kids bought into what we wanted to do and stuck with the game plan. We had to be tight on them, and the girls did it.”

Addy Lohse led the Duchesses with 12 points and six rebounds. Reese Dambman scored 11 points, Ahmyrie McGowan added nine points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. Morgan Hargave had six points, three rebounds and two steals.

Dixon’s 29 wins tied last year’s team for the second-most in a single season in program history, one behind the record set in 1981-82. The six seniors, led by four-year starter Hargrave and three-year starter Dambman – the fifth-leading scorer in school history with 1,097 points – finished their careers with four of the top eight winningest seasons in school history and a 111-23 record, the best four-year stretch in program history.

“I’m super proud of this team and all that they accomplished. Obviously, it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but we’re really proud of the seniors that are graduating and all that they’ve done, and all that this team’s been able to do together,” Ravlin said. “I think it means a lot to have the groups come through here and do what they’ve done over the years. It obviously sets the bar and sets the standard in terms of hard work and dedication, and we know we’ll work really hard to continue what they started.”

https://www.shawlocal.com/sauk-valley/2026/02/20/big-shots-send-geneva-past-dixon-in-3a-regional-final/