BOB ETTINGER
GENEVA — It certainly doesn’t make or break the season for the Geneva girls basketball team, but winning at least a share of the Premier Athletic Conference championship in its first season in the league is something for the Eagles to be proud of.
And by beating North, 46-23, on Saturday at Geneva, the Eagles did stake their claim to at least a share of the conference crown.
“That’s a good accomplishment for these girls,’ Geneva coach Nancy Barbo said. “I don’t know how important it is, but it means a lot to these girls. I think it’s a very good thing for the school and the community.”
The Eagles (13-3, 10-1) can win the league outright with a win at Chardon on Saturday night.
Taking care of the basketball and rebounding were key to the Eagles’ victory over the Rangers.
“That’s exactly what we said at halftime,” Barbo said. “We had one turnover. North came out and played a good game. If we had more turnovers or played sloppy defense, (the Rangers) are probably ahead (at the half). We played very smart offensively.”
“That’s what leads to them having 73 shots in the game,” North coach Paul Force said. “It’s two-fold. They take care of the basketball. Our gameplan was to put less pressure on them and that made it so they were not throwing the ball around. The other thing is (the Eagles) are 17- and 18-year-old girls and playing basketball as long as they have, they’re going to take care of the ball better than we might.”
But there’s also another answer to why the Eagles were able to take such good care of the ball.
“Everybody talks about Taylor (Webb) and Natalie (Stanley),” Force said. “But their guards are very underrated. I don’t think people talk enough about Courtney Thompson, Carly Cash and Jillian Nazor. They take care of the ball, play good defense, make the open shots and, of course, get the ball to their two 6-footers.
“If their guards were poor, we’d be able to pressure them and take them out of their game. I think (their guards) do a great job.”
Geneva turned the ball over just once in the first half and twice through the first three quarters of play. The Eagles only turned the ball over nine times in the game.
Rebounding was the other key for Geneva, considering the Eagles were just 18 of 74 (24.3 percent) from the field.
“Absolutely (the rebounding was big), especially since the shots weren't dropping,” Barbo said. “Right off the bat, I could tell it was going to be a long day for us. We were missing layups.”
Webb led the Eagles with 16 boards. Ashley Meaney added 15 rebounds, Carly Cash and Natalie Stanley each had seven and Courtney Thompson added six as Geneva outrebounded the Rangers (5-12, 3-7), 66-33.
“I’m glad to see that from Ashley,” Barbo said. “We’ve come to expect that from Taylor, though we don’t take it for granted. She’s consistently pulling down boards. I’m glad to see Ashley join in.”
“We’re going to get hammered on the boards,” Force said. “That’s going to happen because of (the Eagles) having the size they do. But rebounding isn’t as much about size as it is about positioning. (Geneva) is a good rebounding team. They’re probably the best rebounding team we’ve played all year.”
When the Eagles took their time in the offense and made several passes, they consistently found ways to score. However, when that patience wasn’t there, they had problems.
“I’m not a fan of passing once and shooting,” Barbo said. “We need to reverse the ball, especially against the zone and make the defense work. When we did that, we had good looks.
“When we didn’t... that’s why we shot the way we did. We had to battle for every shot. Sometimes it took five chances to get (points). We definitely got a lot rebounds off of our own missed shots. I’m just glad we were crashing the offensive boards.”
“They had a lot of easy baskets,” Force said. “We play a different game (than they do). We have to play on the perimeter and hope our shots go in. We need that to happen to be successful. They rely on getting points in the paint. That’s a more consistent way to play than what we do.”
The Rangers were just 8 of 48 from the field and that hurt them.
“They did a nice job contesting shots,” Force said. “They were there to help when we got beat off the dribble. I think we handled their press pretty well. But their halfcourt defense was tough on us. When we did have good looks, there was always somebody coming at us. We were never catching (the ball) when we were wide open.”
However, what might have hurt North more was the Eagles getting a good portion of their rebounds on the defensive end of the floor.
“I’d like to think we played a part (in the Rangers shooting so badly),” Barbo said. “North did get some good looks. They penetrated and challenged the defense. Thankfully, we were there with help a lot of the times when we got beat.
“And I think we did get most of the rebounds after the first shot.”
