Naperville North guard Ava Podkasik took a hard fall with 2:19 remaining in the third quarter of the Huskies game Tuesday night against visiting Geneva.

The junior was knocked to the ground after a tough foul and lay motionless on the court for several anxious moments, then had to be helped to the sidelines.

“It was mostly pain in my jaw,” said Podkasik, who said she was hit in the forehead and the back of the head on the play. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but I tried to calm myself and stay composed. I wanted to come back in the game.”

She did just that in dramatic fashion, returning midway through the fourth quarter to help finish off a Huskies 49-41 nonconference victory over the Vikings.

Podkasik and her teammates got a huge assist down the stretch from Mia Podkasik, Ava’s twin sister. Mia came off the bench to score 8 points in the fourth period to seal the win.

“She played great,” said Ava of Mia. “She’s a great all-around player. She’s been starting, but tonight we just wanted to see what our lineup would look like with some other girls in. Mia had great energy off the bench, with her points, her hustle on defense and her grit. She’s such a hard-working person.”

Geneva trailed 40-29 with 6:29 remaining in the final stanza, but scored 10 consecutive points to cut the deficit to one before Naperville North pulled away.

“I liked our fight in the second half, that’s for sure,” said Vikings coach Sarah Meadows. “We’ve just got to finish.

“We’ve got to be able to score and we’ve got to be able to execute. We had a couple possessions where we’ve just got to take care of the ball better, and we gave up an offensive rebound on a free throw (near the end) that hurt us too.”

Naperville North junior guard Zoey Bishop gave her team a big spark in the second quarter, scoring seven points to lead the Huskies to a 31-24 halftime lead.

The home team held Geneva to just three third quarter points to take a 9-point third quarter advantage, and extended it to 11 in the fourth on a three-pointer from Mia Podkasik.

Then the Vikings rebounded and when senior Frances Rose Myszkowski nailed a 10-footer in the paint, the score was 40-39 Huskies.

The key play came with under a minute left in the game. With Naperville North clinging to a 4-point lead, Ava Podkasik made a steal and fed sister Mia for a layup to give the Huskies some breathing room.

Naperville North, now 5-0 on the season, closed out the game in the final seconds at the free-throw line.

“Really, tonight, we just had to stay together as a team,” said Ava Podkasik, “and I think we did an amazing job of that. We work on situations like this every day at the end of practice. Just a great team win.”

Ava Podkasik paced the Huskies with 15 points, while Mia Podkasik and Bishop each scored 13.

Bishop added 7 rebounds and 5 steals in a stellar performance.

Keira McCann and Ella Wilkison led Geneva (0-5) with nine points apiece. Six-foot sophomore teammate Emma Peterson finished with seven rebounds.

“We’re right there,” said Meadows, who was pleased with the way her team battled. “We’ll keep working and hope we get a ‘W’ soon.

“We started to execute in the second half. We were asking our kids to do certain things and they started to do them, and we got some buckets and some stops.”