Geneseo Gem
Maple Leafs “D” Locks Out Ottawa, NIB 12 West Title At Hand ...
| Northern Illinois Sports Beat http://www.northernillinoissportsbeat.com |
By Bill Lidinsky
Northern Illinois Sports Beat Contributor
OTTAWA – Ever since Geneseo head coach Scott Hardison took over the Maple Leaf’s
girls varsity basketball program this season it was with one thing in mind, and that was to
play excellent man-to-man defense in order to register victories.
Geneseo did just that Wednesday evening at Ottawa’s Kingman Gymnasium limiting the
host Lady Pirates to only three points and no field goals during nearly a 13-minute span
between the start of the second quarter and well into the third period.
From there, the Maple Leafs survived a late Ottawa charge and some poor free throw
shooting to come away with a very defensive minded 46-35 win.
Geneseo (23-5, 8-1) now must defeat Dixon tonight on the road to claim the undisputed
championship of the Northern Illinois Big 12 West Division.
The Lady Pirates (18-6, 7-2) will face Streator also this evening in hopes that with a win,
and a Dixon upset of the Maple Leafs, a regular season two-way tie of the NIB12 West for
the season’s crown can happen.
The Geneseo defensive lockdown held the dynamic Ottawa inside duo of Allie Miceli (13
points, ten rebounds) and Kelsie Rombach (five points, eight boards) in check most of the
night with Kassi Anderson (six points) checking Miceli man-to-man, while Kaci Storm (eight
points) shadowed division one college and St. Bonaventure recruit Rombach.
Both did a remarkable job and senior teammates Devan Griffin (13 points, six rebounds)
and Kelsey Nystrom (12 points) got it done on the offensive end to stake the Maple Leafs
to the huge NIB12 West victory that avenged an earlier overtime loss to the Lady Pirates
back in December at Geneseo.
“We pride ourselves on our defense. We play man-to-man and fight every possession,”
Hardison said. “Our free throw shooting wasn’t what it needed to be today. But I told the
girls if we held them under 40 points tonight we’d be in good shape. I can’t talk enough
about Kaci Storm playing defense on Rombach and Kassi Anderson on Miceli. This is the
first year we’ve played man-to-man. The old coach played a one-three-one zone for
seven years. But the girls have bought into the man defense this season. I believe in it
and it ultimately gave us the edge we needed tonight to win.”
“Give them credit. Geneseo played very well defensively tonight,” said Ottawa coach Mike
Cooper. “We just stood around too much especially in the first half. I thought we did a
better job after we finally got things going late in the third quarter. But by that time, we
were down ten or 12 points. We made a good effort to get back into it at the end, but it
wasn’t quite enough.”
Both clubs were sluggish offensively in the first period as they fought to a 7-7 tie after
eight minutes of play. Catie Carlson (eight points) drove to the hoop and scored on a lay-
up that pulled Ottawa even at the opening period buzzer.
But from there, Geneseo hunkered down defensively and went on a 10-2 run in the
second stanza that provided a 17-9 lead at halftime.
More of the same for the Maple Leafs in the third quarter as an opening 8-1 burst gave
them a 25-10 advantage before the Lady Pirates finally broke the field goal shooting ice
at 3:10 of the frame when Miceli tallied a lay-up.
Despite battling the flu, Griffin registered seven markers in the period as Geneseo owned
a 30-19 lead with eight minutes to go.
“I had the stomach flu yesterday and I missed practice with fatigue,” Griffin said. “But
today, I felt better and I just had to come out hard and help earn the win. In the third
quarter I started to feel strong again.”
After trailing 34-19 at the 6:50 mark of the final stanza, Ottawa went on a 7-0 run to pull
the gap to 34-26 with 4:40 to play.
But Nystrom nailed a long-range three pointer at 2:35 to put the Maple Leafs up 37-26
and that gave Geneseo the resolve to close out the big victory.
“I wasn’t really thinking about shooting a three at that time in the game. But it was open
and I decided to take it,” Nystrom said. “I thought it pumped us up a little after Ottawa got
close. After that, we finished it off.”
Despite only shooting 17 of 36 (47 percent) from the free throw line and getting out-
rebounded 38 to 26, the Maple Leafs prevailed courtesy of an exemplary defensive effort
that now sees them one win away from capturing the 2011-12 NIB 12 West Division title.
Geneseo shot 14 of 32 (44 percent) from the floor on the night with 14 turnovers, while
Ottawa hauled up 13 of 44 (30 percent) attempts from the field with 21 miscues.
“I told our girls after the game tonight we want to be selfish and we don’t want to share the
title with anyone,” Hardison said. “We need to follow up tonight with a win against Dixon
tomorrow and we’ll have earned a hard fought conference championship in the NIB 12
West Division.”
Bill Lidinsky is a Northern Illinois Sports Beat contributor. He can be reached in care of
NISB at Northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our
Message Boards!
Northern Illinois Sports Beat Contributor
OTTAWA – Ever since Geneseo head coach Scott Hardison took over the Maple Leaf’s
girls varsity basketball program this season it was with one thing in mind, and that was to
play excellent man-to-man defense in order to register victories.
Geneseo did just that Wednesday evening at Ottawa’s Kingman Gymnasium limiting the
host Lady Pirates to only three points and no field goals during nearly a 13-minute span
between the start of the second quarter and well into the third period.
From there, the Maple Leafs survived a late Ottawa charge and some poor free throw
shooting to come away with a very defensive minded 46-35 win.
Geneseo (23-5, 8-1) now must defeat Dixon tonight on the road to claim the undisputed
championship of the Northern Illinois Big 12 West Division.
The Lady Pirates (18-6, 7-2) will face Streator also this evening in hopes that with a win,
and a Dixon upset of the Maple Leafs, a regular season two-way tie of the NIB12 West for
the season’s crown can happen.
The Geneseo defensive lockdown held the dynamic Ottawa inside duo of Allie Miceli (13
points, ten rebounds) and Kelsie Rombach (five points, eight boards) in check most of the
night with Kassi Anderson (six points) checking Miceli man-to-man, while Kaci Storm (eight
points) shadowed division one college and St. Bonaventure recruit Rombach.
Both did a remarkable job and senior teammates Devan Griffin (13 points, six rebounds)
and Kelsey Nystrom (12 points) got it done on the offensive end to stake the Maple Leafs
to the huge NIB12 West victory that avenged an earlier overtime loss to the Lady Pirates
back in December at Geneseo.
“We pride ourselves on our defense. We play man-to-man and fight every possession,”
Hardison said. “Our free throw shooting wasn’t what it needed to be today. But I told the
girls if we held them under 40 points tonight we’d be in good shape. I can’t talk enough
about Kaci Storm playing defense on Rombach and Kassi Anderson on Miceli. This is the
first year we’ve played man-to-man. The old coach played a one-three-one zone for
seven years. But the girls have bought into the man defense this season. I believe in it
and it ultimately gave us the edge we needed tonight to win.”
“Give them credit. Geneseo played very well defensively tonight,” said Ottawa coach Mike
Cooper. “We just stood around too much especially in the first half. I thought we did a
better job after we finally got things going late in the third quarter. But by that time, we
were down ten or 12 points. We made a good effort to get back into it at the end, but it
wasn’t quite enough.”
Both clubs were sluggish offensively in the first period as they fought to a 7-7 tie after
eight minutes of play. Catie Carlson (eight points) drove to the hoop and scored on a lay-
up that pulled Ottawa even at the opening period buzzer.
But from there, Geneseo hunkered down defensively and went on a 10-2 run in the
second stanza that provided a 17-9 lead at halftime.
More of the same for the Maple Leafs in the third quarter as an opening 8-1 burst gave
them a 25-10 advantage before the Lady Pirates finally broke the field goal shooting ice
at 3:10 of the frame when Miceli tallied a lay-up.
Despite battling the flu, Griffin registered seven markers in the period as Geneseo owned
a 30-19 lead with eight minutes to go.
“I had the stomach flu yesterday and I missed practice with fatigue,” Griffin said. “But
today, I felt better and I just had to come out hard and help earn the win. In the third
quarter I started to feel strong again.”
After trailing 34-19 at the 6:50 mark of the final stanza, Ottawa went on a 7-0 run to pull
the gap to 34-26 with 4:40 to play.
But Nystrom nailed a long-range three pointer at 2:35 to put the Maple Leafs up 37-26
and that gave Geneseo the resolve to close out the big victory.
“I wasn’t really thinking about shooting a three at that time in the game. But it was open
and I decided to take it,” Nystrom said. “I thought it pumped us up a little after Ottawa got
close. After that, we finished it off.”
Despite only shooting 17 of 36 (47 percent) from the free throw line and getting out-
rebounded 38 to 26, the Maple Leafs prevailed courtesy of an exemplary defensive effort
that now sees them one win away from capturing the 2011-12 NIB 12 West Division title.
Geneseo shot 14 of 32 (44 percent) from the floor on the night with 14 turnovers, while
Ottawa hauled up 13 of 44 (30 percent) attempts from the field with 21 miscues.
“I told our girls after the game tonight we want to be selfish and we don’t want to share the
title with anyone,” Hardison said. “We need to follow up tonight with a win against Dixon
tomorrow and we’ll have earned a hard fought conference championship in the NIB 12
West Division.”
Bill Lidinsky is a Northern Illinois Sports Beat contributor. He can be reached in care of
NISB at Northernillinoissportsbeat@yahoo.com. --- Talk about what's written on our
Message Boards!
At Kingman Gym, Ottawa
Geneseo 46, Ottawa 35
Geneseo (46) – DeFauw 0
0-0 0, Nystrom 3 5-11 12,
Storm 3 2-3 8, Radue 0 0-
0 0, Ford 0 0-0 0, Bozzer 0
0-0 0, Goethals 2 3-11 7,
Anderson 3 0-2 6, Griffin 3
7-9 13, Ganson 0 0-0 0,
Mundt 0 0-0 0. Totals 14
17-36 46.
Ottawa (35) – Carlson 2 4-
4 8, Rice 0 0-0 0,
Kistenfeger 0 0-0 0,
Burgess 1 0-0 3, Greene 0
0-0 0, Crabb 0 0-0 0,
Kindred 0 0-0 0, Bailey 2 0-
0 6, Toynton 0 0-0 0,
Hayne 0 0-0 0, Miceli 6 1-3
13, Harrison 0 0-0 0,
Williams 0 0-0 0,
Rombach 2 1-2 5. Totals
13 6-9 35.
Geneseo 7 10 13 16 – 46
Ottawa 7 2 10 16 – 35
3-point goals – Geneseo 1
(Nystrom); Ottawa 3
(Bailey 2, Burgess).
Rebounds – Geneseo 26
(Griffin 6, Goethals 5);
Ottawa 38 (Miceli 11,
Rombach 8). Turnovers –
Geneseo 14; Ottawa 21.
Total fouls (fouled out) –
Geneseo 11; Ottawa 22
(Rombach).
Records: Geneseo 23-4
(8-1), Ottawa 18-6 (7-2).
Geneseo 46, Ottawa 35
Geneseo (46) – DeFauw 0
0-0 0, Nystrom 3 5-11 12,
Storm 3 2-3 8, Radue 0 0-
0 0, Ford 0 0-0 0, Bozzer 0
0-0 0, Goethals 2 3-11 7,
Anderson 3 0-2 6, Griffin 3
7-9 13, Ganson 0 0-0 0,
Mundt 0 0-0 0. Totals 14
17-36 46.
Ottawa (35) – Carlson 2 4-
4 8, Rice 0 0-0 0,
Kistenfeger 0 0-0 0,
Burgess 1 0-0 3, Greene 0
0-0 0, Crabb 0 0-0 0,
Kindred 0 0-0 0, Bailey 2 0-
0 6, Toynton 0 0-0 0,
Hayne 0 0-0 0, Miceli 6 1-3
13, Harrison 0 0-0 0,
Williams 0 0-0 0,
Rombach 2 1-2 5. Totals
13 6-9 35.
Geneseo 7 10 13 16 – 46
Ottawa 7 2 10 16 – 35
3-point goals – Geneseo 1
(Nystrom); Ottawa 3
(Bailey 2, Burgess).
Rebounds – Geneseo 26
(Griffin 6, Goethals 5);
Ottawa 38 (Miceli 11,
Rombach 8). Turnovers –
Geneseo 14; Ottawa 21.
Total fouls (fouled out) –
Geneseo 11; Ottawa 22
(Rombach).
Records: Geneseo 23-4
(8-1), Ottawa 18-6 (7-2).
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Photo by Bill Lidinsky
Geneseo's Alexandria Radue (12) guards Ottawa's Jasmine Bailey (24) during Wednesday's
NI Big 12 West Division game at Kingman Gymnasium. The Maple Leafs clinched at least a tie
for the top spot in the division with a win over the Lady Pirates.
Geneseo's Alexandria Radue (12) guards Ottawa's Jasmine Bailey (24) during Wednesday's
NI Big 12 West Division game at Kingman Gymnasium. The Maple Leafs clinched at least a tie
for the top spot in the division with a win over the Lady Pirates.
