Geneva Shocks Hinsdale Central—West Aurora Next

In the annals of Geneva High School boys basketball history, second only to the 1963 team's march to Champaign was the Vikings' upset win over East Aurora in 1981.

These days, East is still a great team, but West Aurora is the perennial powerhouse. The team to beat. The talented and confident opponent who, like East way back when, might already have chalked up the "W" when Geneva advanced into its bracket.

Geneva has a chance to repeat a little bit of history tonight as the Vikings face off against West Aurora in the third round of the Class 4A Bolingbrook Sectional.

But to do it, the Vikings will have to play their best basketball game of the year after playing what may have been their best game of the year last night—a stunning 55-49 win over sectional No. 5-seed Hinsdale Central in the Wheaton Warrenville South Regional semifinal.

See the full IHSA 4A playoff bracket here.

Geneva (21-8) was led by Mike Trimble, who tallied 9 points in the second half and helped the Vikings down the stretch of a game tied at 36 after three quarters, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.

Hinsdale Central, the Bolingbrook Sectional's No. 5 seed, led 44-43 with just under four minutes left, the Sun-Times reports, and trailed by a score of 47-46 with 2:25 to go. Late free throws and an easy layup for Geneva's Nate Navigato with just over a minute left, however, sealed the deal for No. 12 seed Geneva.

Navigato led the Vikings with 17 points.

You can watch the whole game, with a play-by-play call from Geneva's very own Matt Rodewald here on the High School Cube. And you can watch tonight's game on the High School Cube, as well.

Matt Raffery scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Red Devils, according to the Sun-Times, while Chase Hamilton scored 14 points.

Hinsdale Central finished 18-7 this season, a solid record fueled by an 11-game win streak that culminated with a conference-title-clinching win over York on Feb. 12.

Geneva moves on to a big test against No. 4 sectional seed West Aurora. A win would send the Vikings into the sectional final against the winner of the Batavia Regional, where Oswego faces off against 

Tonight's contest is Geneva's first regional title game since 2006, the Sun-Times said. The Vikings' last won a regional in 1986.

Does Geneva have another upset in its bag of tricks? The late Allen Mead, former publisher and longtime sports writer for The Geneva Republican, remembered the 1981 win with fondness. 

"My favorite (basketball) recollection is when we beat East Aurora," Mead said. "That was when East had Ernie Kivisto as coach. They were on their home floor (in 1981) and had a trophy all set up to commemorate Kivisto's 300th win, or some milestone like that, and we beat them 74-70."