Geneva boys pull away from Great Hearts

KERRY BARBOZA Sports Editor

The Geneva School of Boerne boys basketball team had a big lead, let it slip away and then pulled ahead for good late in Tuesday’s game when the Eagles hosted Great Heart Northern Oaks.

Geneva won Tuesday’s see-saw battle, 62-58, and improved to 9-2 this year. The Eagles were entered in the Pantego Tournament in the Dallas area this weekend.

In Tuesday’s game, Geneva jumped out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter and was up 20-7 when they went to the second period.

GHNO played better in the second and dropped in 15 and held Geneva to 11 to trim the lead to 31-22 at the break.

Great Hearts played even better in the third and took the quarter, 21-11, and actually held a one-point lead at 43-42 going into the final stanza.

It was back-and-forth in the fourth quarter as each bucket meant a lead change. There were nine lead changes in the final four minutes before the Eagles prevailed.

Great Hearts held its last lead at 58-57 with two minutes left but Colton Lutz nailed a 3-pointer and the Eagles pulled ahead 60-58 with 1:40 and the lead held until the end.

After a Great Hearts miss, the Eagle rebounded and started burning the clock.

Eventually, after missing on a few steal attempts, Great Hearts had to start fouling but they only had two fouls in the quarter so they had to commit three more fouls before the Eagles went to the line.

Geneva chewed off a big chunk of time before Lutz was fouled with 11 seconds left. He went to the line and made both to bump the lead to 62-58.

After the Lutz free throws, Great Hearts tried to inbound the ball but the Eagles stole the pass and ran out the clock.

Griffin Freiling paced the Eagles with 21 points, Wyatt Bruss tallied 14 points and hit four 3-pointers and Colton Lutz netted 13 as three Geneva players were in double digits.

K.P. FitzGerald added 7, Jack Taylor scored 5 and J.W. Harden chipped in with 2 in the fourth quarter.

Great Hearts’ Caden Collin, who is averaging 24 points per game, finished with 36 and had 21 in the second half.