Girls Basketball: Ashley Santos injured in Geneva win

Lincoln-Way East suffered its first loss of the season Saturday at the 22nd annual McDonald’s Shootout at Willowbrook. But Geneva’s loss may have been much bigger.

Sami Pawlak scored 19 points, Michaela Loebel added 13 points and Rachel Hinchmann had 10 to lead No. 20 Geneva to a 65-55 victory over No. 9 Lincoln-Way East.

However, the victory was tempered by a possible right knee injury to Geneva star Ashley Santos, who left the game with the Vikings leading 34-14 at the 2:41 mark of the second quarter.

“The trainer here said no meniscus, no ACL and no MCL,” Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. “It’s in a weird spot. It’s low. We’ll have our trainers look at it and go from there.”

Even without their Marquette-bound senior, the Vikings were able to withstand Lincoln-Way East (13-1) thanks in big part to the play of Pawlak, a 6-foot junior who also had 10 rebounds and two steals.

“Without (Ashley), we did get a little nervous, shocked,” Pawlak said. “But when we knew she was going to be OK, we knew that if stayed as strong as we were we’d be fine. It got a little out of control at the end, but it’s fun playing those kinds of games.”

Trailing 40-23 at halftime, Lincoln-Way East got within 47-37 after three quarters. But Geneva (16-3) used an 11-5 run to open the fourth quarter to extend its lead and made just enough free throws to keep the Griffins at a distance.

“I think we were a little nervous at the start,” Lincoln-Way East coach Jim Martin said. “I don’t know why. We played hard, They’re really good. Their transition killed us early, then they hung in there without Santos.

“When she went down, they played real well as a team,” the coach added. “It goes to show that they’re not just a one-man team. We had our two big guns score well tonight, but our other kids had to step up and they didn’t do that.”

Caitlin McMahon had 23 points and 14 rebounds and Taylor Johnson added 21 points, but no other player had more than four points for Lincoln-Way East.

“We didn’t handle it like we wanted to, but you have to fall to get back up,” Martin said.

Geneva fell in the rankings after a sub-par performance at the Benet/Naperville North Christmas tournament, but the Vikings have been steadily recovering from their mid-season slump and climbing back up the charts.

“We have been talking more about coming out in the beginning as fast as we do in the second half,” Pawlak said. “We changed up our press and we’re doing more man-to-man. On offense, we’re just moving the ball faster so the other team isn’t used to us moving the ball that fast.”

Santos had eight points and five rebounds before her exit.

“Sami played huge, and Loebel did a great job,” Meadows said. “We talked at halftime that everybody has to step up because we just lost a huge player. They did a nice job with that.”

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