CHARDON—An injury sidelined Geneva senior Jordan Vencill for the early part of the 2019-2020 season. Her return hasn’t been good news for opponents, including the Chardon Hilltoppers who saw Vencill score 20 points and dominate the paint in leading the Eagles to a 44-39 overtime win on Monday.
Vencill scored Geneva’s first 10 points and was 4-for-4 from the free throw line down the stretch.
“She’s been back for the last few games and had double-doubles in every one and in one she had a quad-double,” Geneva coach Mike Hassett said. “She’s the heart and soul of our team, especially because she can play outside or inside.”
With the Eagles trailing 5-4 after one, Vencill, who spent the first quarter down low, stepped out and hit back-to-back 3-pointers to spark the Eagles to 17-point quarter and 21-15 halftime lead.
“She’s a good player,” Chardon coach Cullen Harris said of Vencill. “She’s physical, she’s athletic and can run and she’s strong. She’s got some nice moves in the post. She made a couple of jumpers that she’s clearly capable of shooting. That’s the difference. We had to keep her off the boards but we didn’t box out very well and she climbed up our backs, not in a foul way, but she gets us under the hoop and gets offensive rebounds and put-backs. We just didn’t come ready to play. We didn’t come ready to defend or box out.”
Trailing 29-22 after three, the Hilltoppers finally found their offensive rhythm and took the lead with 4:10 remaining.
Ashley Hoenigman drained a 3-pointer to open the fourth. The Eagles responded with a 3-pointer of their own but Kayla Noerr converted four straight free throws tries to pull Chardon to within one point and Hoenigman hit another 3 to give the Hilltoppers a 34-32 lead.
“That was energy and effort and playing hard and taking care of the ball,” Harris said of the fourth-quarter run. “When we took care of the basketball and executed things we got really good looks. When we stop and execute and run what we’re supposed to run, we get good looks. When we don’t, we turn the ball over and get bad looks. It’s hard to execute and run offense. It’s easy to dribble and run freelance and that’s where we run into problems.”
Vencill hit a pair of free throws to tie the game but Chardon’s Sam Liechty drained a turnaround jumper to regain the lead.
Back-to-back turnovers left Chardon in possession with 38 seconds left. An offensive foul sent Geneva’s Kassi Emmett to the line for a one-and-one.
Emmett sank the first to cut Chardon’s lead to 36-35 but 23 seconds later, following a Chardon turnover, the officials corrected their mistake of sending Geneva to the line following an offensive foul and took one point off the scoreboard.
With seven seconds left, Geneva inbounded the ball and fed Olivia Wilms under the hoop for an easy game-tying layup as time expired in regulation.
Wilms added another bucket and two free throws in overtime and Reign Cribbs and Vencill also sank their OT free throws to lead the Eagles to the win.
“They played hard, they came out ready to play, they’re well-coached, disciplined and fundamental,” Harris said of the Eagles. “They execute and defend and we just didn’t do those things very well tonight.”
Jordyn Jamison contributed to the win with nine points and Wilms finished with eight.
Noerr led the Hilltoppers with 10 and Liechty finished with nine.
