Edge on boards leads Geneva past Fenwick

Geneva came out of the gate strong during Wednesday’s non-conference game and never slowed down.

That spelled doom for visiting Fenwick, which was never really in the ballgame, losing 66-36.

“We came out too slow and too sluggish,” Fenwick coach Dave Power said. “They were a step ahead all the time and shot well.”

Geneva (16-5) didn’t shoot lights out at the start, but it shot well enough to jump to a 10-0 lead and an impressive 40-9 mark at halftime.

The Vikings took control early and never let up, especially on the glass where they not only had several second and even third chance opportunities on the offensive side of the ball, but kept the Friars to one-and-done most of the evening.

“We talked about that (rebounding) yesterday,” Geneva coach Sarah Meadows said. “There were three keys for us. We had to rebound, we had to talk on defense and we just had to get back to playing with this attitude of they’re-not-going-to-score-on-us defense.”

Janie McCloughan led the Vikings with 20 points. She converted five field goals and was a perfect 10-of-10 from the charity stripe.

Freshman Grace Loberg, who began the season on the sophomore squad, tallied 12 points and collected 12 rebounds as the Vikings enjoyed a 47-33 rebounding edge.

“We just had to make sure we went after every shot and didn’t allow any second chances,” Loberg said. “It gave our team more chances to score. Sometimes you just have to be fast to get around them and go after the ball.”

Fenwick (8-15) broke the shutout on a steal and layup from freshman Gisselle Diaz with 1:49 left in the first quarter. Diaz was one of the new bright spots for the Friars, scoring a team-best nine points.

“We’re just in a tough situation having an all-stater (Creighton recruit Jade Owens) sitting on the bench,” Power said. “(Geneva) played well and they shot well, and now we’re now in a situation where we’ve got to try to get some momentum for the state playoffs.”

Geneva made 19-of-26 free throws while Fenwick was only 3-of-7.

Senior Morgan Seberger added 11 points for the winners while junior Courtney Reynolds scored nine points, all on three-pointers in the first half.

Freshman Elle Schaefer had eight points and six rebounds for the Friars.