RICH KELLY
ANDOVER TOWNSHIP — The Geneva Eagles had a lot of big reasons to win their Division II district semifinal matchup with the Notre Dame-Cathedral Latin Lions on Thursday night at Pymatuning Valley.
And after spending much of the night on the underside of the contest with the eighth-seeded Lions, the Eagles put together a 10-0 run late in the fourth period to take a lead which they failed to hold as the game came down to its conclusion, resulting in a thrilling battle into overtime. The top-seeded Eagles made the most of their free throw opportunities as they claimed a thrilling 58-56 win over the Lions.
It’s the first district tournament win in program history and gives coach Nancy Barbo her 200th career win.
“I’m very proud of how the girls stuck together all the way tonight,” Barbo said. “It wasn’t a pretty win, but our girls have given a strong effort all year when we face tough times, and every girl has had her moments when they picked us up at tough times.
“Obviously, these were two evenly matched teams in this game, and I’m glad we came out with the win. It’s our first ever in district play, which is something the girls can hang their hats on for a long, long time.”
The victory vaults the top-seeded Eagles (18-4) into a district championship game against Kenston on Saturday afternoon at 2. The fifth-seeded Bombers knocked off third-seeded Lake Catholic in the second semifinal Thursday night.
Post power has been the main resource at the disposal of coach Nancy Barbo all season in the presence of senior towers Taylor Webb and Natalie Stanley, and despite knowing coming in how NDCL would play them, the two inside forces came through in the clutch.
“We got big games out of our post players tonight, and we needed that because NDCL is one tough team,” Barbo said. “We didn’t use Taylor well in the first half, and we were down because of it. Natalie did a great job, but we didn’t use their size well. NDCL used a lot of pressure on the ball all night, and their post players played well for them, but our girls just stepped up and made plays.
Down 41-35 with four minutes left in regulation, Webb hit four straight free throws to cut into the Lion lead, and then, in about a five second span she proceeded to erase the lead completely by stealing a pair of inbound passes and putting in layups.
The Lions needed a quick timeout just to blink again. Stanley completed the run with another pair of free throws, but the Lions rallied in the final seconds of regulation when Bridget Koenig hit the third of her 3-pointers with 12.5 seconds left to play to tie the game at 47. Geneva held on despite a pair of turnovers under the NDCL hoop with less than 6 seconds to go to force the extra session.
In overtime, the Eagles broke a 54-54 tie in the final minute with two free throws each from Webb and Carly Cash.
“We had our opportunities, but didn’t take advantage of them,” NDCL coac Rick Rucinski said. “There’s not much doubt in my mind but that Webb is the best post player we have seen all year. When you give up as many points as we did from the free-throw line, it’s tough to get a win, but our girls played hard and have really turned the program around for us after winning only four games last year.
“Our seniors were great all year.”
Webb dominated the game much of the time after Stanley had done the majority of the work early in the contest. While controlling both ends of the floor on the boards, snaring 23 rebounds, including 10 on the offensive glass, Webb scored 18 points in the second half and overtime on her way to a 23-point night.
“This is the first time in school history for a team to reach the district title game,” Webb said. “It’s also our first district win ever, too, and getting Coach her 200th win makes it all that much more special for our team.”
Stanley added 19 points to accompany Webb’s performance.
“We played with a lot of heart tonight,” Rucinski said. “Things basically fell apart for us when Mary (Wojtila) hurt her finger in the third period. She had played a super game against Webb and Stanley until then, but when she went down (dislocated or broken finger), we just didn’t have enough left inside to stop them, and they started getting to the free throw line and we couldn’t hang on long enough.”
Geneva hit 25 of 35 free throws, compared to just 12 of 15 for NDCL, which hit six 3-pointers to stay in the game while limiting Geneva to just one.
Lindsay Hammer scored 13 points and and Bridget Koenig added 11 to lead the Lions (11-12). mark.
Kelly is a freelance writer from Jefferson.
