Geneva surges late; Cary-Grove rolls

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:18AM

Geneva guard Katelyn Allen pumped her fist after the first of two free throws dropped in the waning seconds of Tuesday's semifinal game against Hononegah in the Class 4A Jacobs Sectional semifinals.

Allen's free throws extended the Vikings lead to 63-56 with 55 seconds left, but her shots were all part of what finished as a 16-0 run after No. 12 Geneva was down 56-51 with five minutes left in the game.

The senior scored a career-high 23 points by making six threes as the Vikings used their stunning fourth-quarter rally to win 70-60 and advance to Thursday's sectional final against Cary-Grove.

"I felt like it was my turn to step up," said Allen, who needed to with Ashley Santos on the bench early with foul trouble. "Sometimes I overthink it, but tonight I knew it was my time. I'm a senior and I want to go to state."

The Vikings (24-6) led for most of the game, varying leads between nine at a half to tighter one-possession games.

But Hononegah's all-state guard Brea Edwards, who had 20 points and 15 rebounds, and Lindsay Carroll (19 points) combined with 6-foot-4 Wisconsin-signee Nicole Smith -- who wasn't supposed to play because of injury -- to turn the tide on Geneva in the third quarter, taking a 50-49 lead to the fourth.

Smith scored the first two baskets of the fourth and the lead swelled to five. It looked like Geneva was succumbing to momentum at the wrong time.

"I didn't have really kind words at halftime," Indians coach Randy Weibel said. "To their credit, they battled back and got a lead. We just couldn't sustain it and it took so much out of us that we just ran out of gas. We hit a wall in the fourth, but a lot of the credit goes to them. They have a great point guard (Kat Yelle) who handled our pressure and made good decisions and they hit some big, big shots."

That's when Santos woke up, hitting a fade away jumper to pull within three, before stepping into a three a moment later to tie the game at 56-56.

A minute later, Allen followed up Carroll's miss on the front end of a one-and-one with her sixth three, retaking the lead.

"We hit big shots when we needed to," Geneva coach Gina Nolan said. "What can you say about the night Katelyn had shooting the ball lights out?"

After the Indians' Elizabeth Jordan missed a 3 to tie, the Vikings spread the floor to run time and force a foul.

Santos, who finished with 17, didn't get the memo, shooting an open baseline jumper that if missed would give Hononegah (28-4) another chance.

Swish.

"Did you hear me yelling 'No'?" Nolan asked reporters. "But she's a player and she felt it and that's awesome. Our kids just really pulled together and we executed when we needed to that's for sure."

Santos, who did admit the second big shot was bad judgment, explained her philosophy.

"Any open shot you have, if you feel you can take, you should take it because every basket helps," said the junior.

Allen, Santos and Yelle (16 points) combined to make 9-of-10 free throws down the stretch, while Geneva was 19-of-22 overall.

Now the Vikings get Cary-Grove again, a team they beat last year by seven in the Huntley Sectional semifinal.

This time around, the wins are harder to come by, and special comeback wins like Tuesday when everyone steps up are more gratifying to Ohio-bound senior Yelle.

"It's so exciting and I'm so glad it happened that we were down early fourth quarter and we got the lead back," Yelle said. "It showed us we can do that and not get down on ourselves. We had some really big players step up tonight.

"Dori (Rogers) hit a big shot in the first half, Katelyn was on fire. Really, anyone can step up on our team and that's what gives us confidence going on for hopefully more than one game. I guess we'll just have to play our hardest and whichever team has more heart at the end I believe will win."

Cary-Grove 57, Huntley 37: There probably haven't been too many games this year when Cary-Grove senior Claire Jakubicek went without scoring a field goal through three quarters.

"Probably never," said Trojans coach Rod Saffert.

Yet that's exactly what happened in Tuesday's semifinal game of the Class 4A Jacobs Sectional against Huntley.

Luckily for the NIU signee, fellow senior Megan Straumann and the rest of the Trojans had her back as No. 14 Cary-Grove picked up a win to advance to Thursday's final against Geneva.

"It was getting frustrating," said Jakubicek with her typical smile. "I heard what they did to DeKalb in shutting down their post. I'm happy we played really well as a team, so it worked out."

Jakubicek didn't pick up a field goal until the 5:27 left in the fourth quarter-- her second try on a wide-open layup -- but still finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds thanks to a 9-of-11 night at the line.

"It's a taste of what college ball will be like," Saffert said. "Huntley does a good job defensively. We knew what we were up against, they knew what they were up against. They stayed tough. She knew she'd get some shots eventually, just had to keep playing."

Straumann was the hero, however, scoring 19 points -- nine in the first half, 10 in the second-- using a deadly midrange jumper to carve up the Red Raiders (20-9), while also picking five steals.

"It's a big eye opener knowing it's do or die," Straumann said. "Confidence was definitely there after the first couple ones I hit."

Paige Lincicum scored 10 points for Cary-Grove (27-3), which also got nine points from Johanna Geegan and 10 rebounds from Olivia Jakubicek, as the Trojans outrebounded Huntley 30-17.

"Coming in to tonight, we knew we had to rebound the basketball," Huntley coach Steve Raethz said. "We knew we couldn't turn the ball over and we had to get back defensively. I thought we did our part getting back defensively, but we didn't do a good job on the glass and really got outworked."

Kadie Lowery scored 12 for Huntley and Carly Goede had 10, but other than the four times the pair hit threes, the Trojans had things bottled up pretty well on defense.

"At crucial times when we needed a basket and we needed to take care of the ball, it didn't happen," Raethz said. "We got it to four at one point in the third and then a couple turnovers. You can't do that against a team the quality of Cary-Grove because they'll make you pay for it."

Now the Trojans advance to the first sectional final in school history with possible revenge on their minds for last year's Huntley Sectional semifinal loss to the Vikings.

"Whatever team we play, It's going to be a great game and I'm looking forward to it," Jakubicek said.

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