Geneva girls win regional hoops title for fifth straight season

Advancing to the TAPPS state basketball tournament is nothing new for the Geneva School of Boerne girls team.

Last Saturday’s regional finals 45-25 victory over Waco Vanguard College Prep in Austin is the Eagles’ fifth straight regional championship.

The Eagles ( 29- 4) play Austin Hill Country Christian School of Austin (23-12) Thursday in Waco in the state semifinals, 10 a.m.

The winner plays Friday vs. the winner of Lubbock Christian School and Lake Country Christian School – Fort Worth, 11 a.m.

While getting to state hasn’t been too much of a problem for the Eagles, getting past the state semifinals and into the finals is another issue.

Geneva has been eliminated in the state semifinals in their last four trips to state and head coach Aamir McCleary hopes this is the year they take the next step.

“We have to approach the game in a way where we’re confident that we’re going to win, we have to have confidence in ourselves as well as our teammates and be the best version of ourselves,” he said. “We can’t be outworked and have to show up and play Geneva basketball from start to finish and do what makes us successful, which is defending and getting out in the open court.”

In last Saturday’s regional finals game, Waco Vanguard was focused on stopping Geneva senior Maegan Riebel, who is averaging 24 points a game. Riebel was held to 8 points on 8 shots but got her teammates involved and finished with 6 assists.

Kyra Petty led the team in scoring with 14 points, Morgan Howard scored 9, Riebel had 8, Madeline Egbert and Grace Detterick both netted 6 and Sopris Oglesby hit for 2.

Detterick grabbed 13 rebounds and came up with 4 blocks, while Petty and Egbert had 5 steals each.

McCleary said to make it to state five years in a row is quite an honor for everyone associated with the program.

“It means a lot to us and the community and school we are representing,” he said. “It means a lot, especially for our seniors, who show up daily and put their hard hats on and work, they deserve it. We’ve leaned on them all year and they’ve stepped up to the challenge.”