GENEVA — Thanks, Erik Petrecca, your team really needed that one.

A basketball season that has been marked by all kinds of injuries, illnesses and other factors took on a joyful aspect for at least one night as Perry’s senior guard banked in a jumper from just inside the foul line with one second remaining to give the Pirates a 44-42 non-conference victory over the Geneva Eagles on Tuesday night at Geneva.

“Yes, that’s my first gamewinner,” Petrecca said with a big smile. “I was just trying to get inside. I didn’t realize how close the time was. I just knew I had to get a shot off.”

All the Geneva forces could do was shake their heads in amazement and admiration.

“The kid hit a tough shot. Did he bank it in?” Geneva coach John Marhefka said.

Assured he had, he added, “The backboard is your friend.”

Perry coach Chad Frazier said Petrecca was doing what he was told coming out of a timeout with 18.2 seconds remaining.

“We told (the players) to penetrate the gaps,” he said. “Erik hit a big shot. Good for him.”

Petrecca’s big shot overshadowed what appeared to be a clutch 3-pointer with 20 seconds left by Geneva’s Dillon Puckrin. It appeared Puckrin had sent the game into overtime as Perry (5-11, 0-10 in the Chagrin Valley Conference Chagrin Division) struggled for the first few seconds of its possession out of a timeout before Petrecca made his move.

“It came down to getting stops,” Marhefka said. “Dillon hit a great shot, but we had to get a stop.”

Petrecca’s play sealed an effort for a Pirate team that took one more body blow in a series of them before it ever got to Geneva when junior forward Anthony Kukwa, who is fifth in the Star Beacon area in scoring at 17 points per game and is second in rebounding at 10.7 per game, was left home to deal with a case of the flu.

Frazier looked at it as a testament to his team’s grit.

“This is absolutely a big win for us,” he said. “These guys have really stuck together. I’m real proud of the way these guys have pushed to win.”

There were plenty of opportunities for Perry to give up and for Geneva (6-11, 3-8 in the Premier Athletic Conference) to run away. The Eagles shot 56.3 percent in the first half, but could only build a 23-18 halftime lead as the Pirates refused to crumble.

Geneva appeared to have distanced itself from Perry after three quarters by building a 36-29 lead. But then the Eagles seemed to go to sleep offensively, getting off only two shots in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter.

Perry took advantage of that to take charge and reel off eight unanswered points. Nolan Farrell’s steal and layup with 3:50 remaining put Perry ahead for the first time at 37-36.

“We started passing the ball a lot better in the fourth quarter,” Frazier said. “Once we cracked their 1-3-1, we did better.”

“We got a little tentative,” Marhefka said. “I was surprised we got tentative.”

After that, neither team had a lead of more than two points. Perry’s Brennan Sailors, who led all players with 15 points and six rebounds, scored a conventional three-point play with 1:29 left, but Geneva’s Tyler Erb, who led his team with 11 points, hit the second on a one-and-one foul situation with 1:11 left. Max Zitney pushed Perry’s lead back to 42-39 with a foul-line jumper with 50 seconds left, but Puckrin’s trey tied the game and set the stage for Petrecca’s big moment.

Perry’s also got 10 points from Ben Perko.

The Pirates have the oddity of going 5-1 in its non-conference games this season and 0-10 in CVC play. Frazier hopes his team might be inspired to correct that matter, with or without Kukwa in the lineup.

“We missed Anthony dearly, but I think it’s good for our team to see they can do it without him,” Frazier said. “Brennan showed he had the ability tonight and so did a lot of the other guys.

“I think it was good for our other guys to see they can do it. The other guys stepped up tonight.”