BOB ETTINGER
GENEVA — When it came to crunch time and its collective back to wall, the Geneva girls basketball came out swinging. And the Eagles landed a haymaker in downing Chardon, 55-47, to claim sole possession of first place in the Premier Athletic Conference midway through the league schedule.
“It’s a huge sigh of relief to be where we’re at right now,” Geneva coach Nancy Barbo said. “But it’s only a brief sigh of relief.
“It starts all over again in less than a week. On Wednesday, it starts all over again. We’ll look at it as a brand new season, I guess.”
The Hilltoppers (5-2, 4-1) fall a game off the Eagles’ pace. Geneva is unbeaten in the league (6-0) and is 8-1 overall.
“(Geneva is) undefeated,” Chardon coach Darrell Haskins said. “Everyone is looking up at them. This is our first loss (in the PAC). It makes our game with South on Saturday more important. We’ll have to get back to the practice floor tomorrow and work hard toward that.”
The Eagles opened the final period up eight, 37-29, but Chardon battled back to knot the score, 37-37 with 4:26 remaining, following a 3-pointer from Halle Herringshaw, a conventional three-point play from Erin Clancy, who was playing for the first time in two seasons, and a putback from Stephanie Bartol.
“She probably played too many minutes,” Haskins said of Clancy, who led the Hilltoppers with 12 points. “Her parents and doctors might be killing me, but it was really nice to see her on the floor.
“I give the girl so much credit. It’s unbelievable the past two years what she’s gone through with surgery and rehab, surgery and rehab (on her right knee). To do that on her first night back says a lot about the kid.”
The teams traded points and were tied again at 41-41 with 3:03 left.
And that’s when the Eagles really started fighting.
A bucket from Courtney Thompson with 2:47 to play started a 12-0 run that gave the Eagles the victory. Taylor Webb followed with a putback 30 seconds later and 35 seconds after that, Carly Cash connected on a trey from the wing to put the Eagles up seven, 48-41, with 1:40 to play. Jillian Nazor scored on a hook shot following a rebound, Natalie Stanley made a free throw and Cash closed the run with a layup.
“These girls know to fight to the very end,” Barbo said. “We talk to them all the time about the game having ups and downs. You’re going to have runs here and there, but you’ve got to be able to respond.”
“Give Nancy credit for that,” Haskins said. “She kept her team focused and on top of their game. We expended so much energy just to get the tie. We take a deep breath and relax and the (Eagles) spread the lead again.
“I don’t want to say we relaxed, but you do take a little breather. The (Eagles) said, ‘Uh-oh!’, and they were back in gear.”
Webb paced the Eagles with 17 points, 24 rebounds, five steals and three blocked shots.
“We didn’t have an answer for her at all tonight,” Haskins said.
“She was playing like she was possessed,” Barbo said. “When she plays like that, she’s hard to stop. She’s got a good instinct for the ball and the players do a good job of looking to her. And she responds.”
Trailing 19-18 with 2:03 remaining in the first half, Geneva used a putback from Webb, a 3-pointer from Thompson and bucket from Stanley to take a 25-19 lead into the break.
Following a 3-pointer and a jumper from Clancy, the Hilltoppers trimmed that advantage to just three, 31-28, with 2:44 remaining in the third period. But a pair of free throws from Stanley, a bucket from Webb and another from Stanley put the Eagles in front, 37-29, at the end of three quarters.
“One thing Geneva did very well was at the end of the second and third quarters they went on a run,” Haskins said. “To end each quarter on a 7-1 or 8-0 run, whatever it was, to end a quarter is tough to come back from.”
Stanley tallied 13 points and six boards, Cash scored 11 points and Thompson added nine points with four assists for the Eagles.
Herringshaw and Bartol (10 rebounds) each scored eight points for the Hilltoppers.
