KARL PEARSON
ANDOVER TOWNSHIP — Some people claim it takes a village to raise a child. Late Saturday afternoon, coach Nancy Barbo and the members of the Geneva girls basketball squad could say that it takes a team to achieve a dream.
The dream became reality for the Eagles in convincing fashion as they disposed of the Kenston Bombers, 42-29, at Pymatuning Valley High School to claim the Division II district championship. In the process, they created one more piece of history for a school that had never been farther than a district-semifinal appearance before this year.
Now, top-seeded Geneva (19-4) has a chance to add to the latest piece of history. On Tuesday at 6:15 p.m., it will take on Struthers in regional semifinal action at Barberton High School. The second-seeded Wildcats knocked off top-seeded Salem, 59-54, to claim the Austintown Fitch district championship Saturday. Defending state champion Hathaway Brown and Canton South, the top seeds in their respective districts, are the combatants in the second semifinal Tuesday at 8 p.m.
“Words can’t explain how much this means,” Barbo said as her eyes even misted a bit at what her team had accomplished while securing her 201st career victory. “This is something we felt this team could really do as we moved forward in the tournament and it began to come within reach.”
It was still somewhat difficult for her players to grasp. It was hard for even the season-long ringleader of the Eagles, senior post Taylor Webb, to completely understand, even though she responded in her usual fashion with game highs of 15 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two steals and a blocked shot.
“I’ve always dreamed about this, but I still can’t quite wrap my head around it,” she said, sporting a big smile.
“I hoped that we could do it,” senior guard Jillian Nazor, who provided eight key points, including a pair of crucial 3-pointers, and also dished out three assists, said. “I knew if we worked hard, it was possible. We had six seniors with plenty of experience, and everybody on the team was really willing to work hard.”
And in this most critical of games, every player Barbo turned to seemed to provide a key contribution when it was needed. That applied to Nazor and her starting partners at guard, Carly Cash, who added seven points, and Courtney Thompson, who provided six more. It also included reserves like Audra Puckrin and Suelen Gutierrez at guard, who supplied key relief minutes, even when they didn’t score.
“Jillian handled the press and did a real good job of taking care of the ball,” Barbo said. “All the guards did a really good job. I told them (the Bombers) were going to try and take away our forwards, and if they did, it was time for them to go to work, and they all did.”
It applied equally to the reserves along the inside. When Natalie Stanley got in foul trouble early, it meant Barbo had to call upon junior Ashley Meaney and, later, freshman Natalie Thomas, to provide key minutes as Stanley remained hampered by foul woes. Meaney responded with two key free throws and Thomas scored a basket that provided insurance in the fourth quarter.
“I thought (Meaney) played an excellent game,” Barbo said. “Natalie always looks shocked when we put her in, but she did a good job, too.”
But Geneva wasn’t the only team that came into the game with a dream. Fifth-seeded Kenston (15-8) also was thinking big. Emboldened both by a 40-38 victory in Thursday’s district semifinal game against Lake Catholic and a 40-37 comeback victory over Geneva in the regular-season finale for both teams on Feb. 20, the Bombers also had visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads. The underappreciated Bombers, playing in their first district final since 1997, had also tied for the Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division championship with Perry.
“A lot of people didn’t expect us to make it this far,” Kenston coach Kevin Hinkle said. “From Day 1, I’ve talked to the kids about laying in the weeds. We weren’t on anybody’s radar screen, but we knew what we had and that other people didn’t realize it.”
It made Saturday’s matchup an interesting affair. For the first time since the 2001-02 season, two public schools (champion Perry and runner-up Jefferson) had played for the Division II district title, back in the days when the tournament was still played at Edgewoodl. It was the first time since the 2005-06 Jefferson squad did so that even one public-school team had played in the district final.
For much of the first half, the game was going pretty much the way Kenston liked it, played at a very deliberate pace. The game was tied at seven after the first quarter and was still in the Bombers’ favor midway through the second quarter, with Kenston holding an 11-9 lead after two free throws by Katie Ross.
But that was the last lead Kenston enjoyed, because the Geneva guards got going. Cash was the first to hit the ignition switch to initiate a 12-0 Eagle run spanning the remainder of the first half and the first two minutes of the third quarter, draining a 3-pointer with 2:41 left in the half to give the Eagles the lead for good. She followed up with two free throws before Webb tacked on a free throw and a basket off a steal to give Geneva a 17-11 halftime advantage.
Barbo said she had grown weary of playing the game at Kenston’s pace.
“The pace was too deliberate,” she said. “But it all ended up working out. We needed to be patient before we put the press on.”
Which Geneva did to start the second half. It ended up paying huge dividends as Webb hit for two straight baskets off steals to expand the Eagles’ lead to 21-11 before Grace Moran’s free throw stopped Geneva’s run temporarily.
But Thompson answered that with a 3-pointer that expanded Geneva’s lead back to 24-12. The Eagles kept the margin at that level for a 28-16 lead after three.
Webb’s two free throws with 7:01 left actually sealed the deal for Geneva for a 30-16 lead. But the Eagles didn’t stop there as Webb added four more points, Nazor nailed her second trey of the game and Stanley and Thomas got on the board as well to build an edge as large as 40-22 before the game was turned over to the reserves.
Hinkle said Kenston’s plan was to take away Geneva’s inside game, often having four players collapsing on Webb in the paint, and hoping the Eagles’ guards had a poor shooting day. That backfired, and was compounded by the Bombers’ own poor shooting (8 of 33 for 24.2 percent) to the Eagles’ 14 of 35 (40 percent).
“They knocked down their shots, which they needed to do, and we had a poor shooting day,” he said. “We knew we had to choose what we were going to try and do, not let their two post players beat us and hope they didn’t shoot well outside. Give credit to their defense, too.”
The game was a struggle for Webb, and not just because of Kenston’s defensive efforts.
“Earlier in the week I had to go to the doctor’s office,” she said. “I had an ear ache and a sinus infection I had to get treated. I rested up (Friday). And I trust all the other girls on the team, not just the starters.”
Cash had composed a poem just for the occasion that she shared in the locker room before the game.
“It was about, ‘What is our name? Who do we play for?’ ” she said.
The answer from her teammates?
“GENEVA EAGLES!” they had shouted.
“It really got us going,” Cash said with a big grin.
Indeed it did, right to the regional tournament and the fulfillment of a team dream... one that continues Tuesday night in Barberton.
