The Geneseo High School varsity girls' basketball team took home third place at the Dixon Holiday Tournament. The girls defeated Forreston, 53-50 to take third place. Geneseo lost to Stillman Valley, 33-28 sending Geneseo to the third-place match. Other tournament wins included a 47-23 victory over Rockford Christian and a 42-41 win over Rockford Boylan
By Steve Tappa, stappa@qconline.com
| DIXON -- Justin Shiltz sheepishly emerged from a celebratory locker room Thursday night with the decorative top accidentally snapped off a large metal cup. "We're going to need to get some glue,'' the United Township girls' basketball coach announced with a laugh after the Panthers' won the 34th annual Dixon Holiday Tournament. "It figures that we finally win this tournament and the trophy breaks.'' It was a breakthrough of another kind, though, that pleased Shiltz, with the Panthers rallying to pull out a close championship game, 58-50 victory over Stillman Valley (13-4). Three of this season's setbacks for UT (12-4) have come by a combined eight points. "Trophy or no trophy, we made progress,'' Shiltz said. "Instead of making mistakes at bad times, we hit our free throws, we didn't have any turnovers in the fourth quarter and we made some clutch stops. So we won some games here we might have lost earlier in the year.'' United Township, the event's runner-up two of the last three seasons, finally broke through in its fifth title-try since winning the tourney for the only other time in 2000. The Panthers' previously were Dixon's bridesmaids in 2010, 2008, 2004. 2001 and 1984. "I was proud of our kids. To play four games in three days and mentally battle through the grind,'' Shiltz said. "Plus, Abby (VanDeventer) is playing on a twisted ankle and (fellow starter) Kiana (Brady) went down during the game with one. But we persevered.'' Mikayla Fallon had a team-best 20 points for UT, including six straight free-throw makes down the stretch. But the title tilt against Stillman Valley featured a full team effort, with nearly everyone contributing. Freshman Taylor Dobrinske hit some big shots off the bench. Halle Lewis knocked down 5-of-6 free throws in the fourth quarter. Autumn Vergeyle had a big steal late. The VanWatermeulen twins, Jen and Jamie, both made several hustling plays. And, VanDeventer stole an inbounds pass with 90 seconds remaining and UT clinging to a 48-45 lead. "They all did something,'' said Shiltz, whose club trailed 36-32 late in the third period. "They got us through a rough patch and then really closed out the game strong.'' Fallon also had 16 points in a 50-30 semifinal win over Forreston earlier in the day. -- Geneseo takes third: Geneseo split a pair of games Thursday, losing to Stillman Valley, 33-28 in the semis, before knocking off Forreston 53-50 for the bronze medal. "We're pretty pleased, having won 7 of our 8 holiday tournament games,'' said Geneseo coach Scott Hardison, whose club won the Ottawa Tournament last week. "And, if we hit our free throws earlier (Thursday), we would have played for the title here, too.'' Devan Griffin led the way with 25 points against Forreston, and added 12 more against Stillman Valley. Kelsey Nystrom added 11 points in the third-place game. However, the Leafs (14-3) were 9-for-21 from the line in the semifinal setback. "We're disappointed because the girls were really looking forward to playing UT (in the final),'' Hardison admitted. "But overall, our record in December is 10-2 and we're 14-3 overall, so we're right where we want to be going into the second half of our conference season.'' |
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