Boys Basketball: Geneva cruises past Larkin

Updated: February 8, 2012 10:02PM

When Larkin and Geneva met in January, it was all Geneva as the Vikings dominated Larkin in a 19-point victory. Wednesday night it was much of the same as Geneva rolled to a 60-32 Upstate Eight River victory at Geneva.

The story of the first half for Geneva was senior Brendan Leahy. Leahy scored 21 points and grabbed six rebounds in the first 16 minutes of the game. Leahy, who ended up with a game-high 25 points on the night, had a senior night to remember for the Vikings.

“Great way to end my career at home,” said Leahy. “We wanted to win this game so badly. We were very unselfish and that helped us beat a very good Larkin team.”

The Geneva (13-9, 7-2) defense was a big reason the Vikings were able to get off to such a fast start. Geneva held Larkin to just 12 first half points and allowed them to shoot just 21 percent from the field.

Not much changed for Larkin (14-8, 5-5) after the halftime break as the Royals were outscored 15-5 in the third quarter. Larkin coach Deryn Carter didn’t find many positives in their loss to Geneva.

“This was a frustrating game for us,” said Carter. “We always go in to games saying let’s do something to improve as a team whether we win or lose. I Don’t think we did that tonight. We got in a hole early and our offense and defense could never keep up with Geneva’s.”

Geneva coach Phil Ralston was very pleased with his team’s effort against Larkin.

“I was very nervous heading in to this game because Larkin has been playing so well the past month,” said Ralston. “Our kids overachieved in what we asked them to do in this game. I was so happy with how we played on both sides of the ball. This was a great way to send out our seniors. We still have some tough games left on the road and hopefully we can keep it going.”

Larkin was led by Derrick Streety with 13 points.

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