Girls basketball: Genoa-Kingston cruises over Richmond-Burton

GENOA – Richmond-Burton girls basketball coach Todd Severns equated Genoa-Kingston to a buzzsaw after the Cogs’ 53-22 win Tuesday night.

Cogs coach Kyle Henkel said any machinery always can use a little oil.

“We did a lot of good things, but there’s always things to improve on,” Henkel said. “I know the girls hate that.”

The Cogs (19-6) scored nine of the 11 first points in the game, led 27-8 at halftime and pulled their starters with 1:07 left in the third quarter.

“We ran into a buzzsaw,” Severns said. “Genoa is really well-coached and shoots the ball. Defensively, I thought we did a good job in the first half, but when you score eight or nine points, it’s hard to compete. We had some good looks, and it’s hard to fault my girls’ effort. We played hard until the end, but we ran into a buzzsaw.”

Henkel said he was pleased with the Cogs’ defense, but thought it could have done better on the boards – the Rockets (10-14) had a 16-14 rebounding edge at halftime. They had seven offensive boards.

“We weren’t able to finish possessions with rebounds,” Henkel said. “Second half, we started chasing down loose balls and didn’t give up as many second chances.”

Julie Galauner was the only player in double figures, leading the Cogs with 17 points. Jessi Nay added nine.

The teams both were playing their second-to-last game before the postseason begins. The Rockets will play host Marian Central in the first round of their regional Tuesday, while the Cogs head to Sterling as the No. 2 seed.

Henkel said that although the team still is focused on finishing out the regular season, it still is working on things to improve before the postseason starts.

“We’re just trying to do everything we can to be ready for next week,” Henkel said. “We still have a pretty good opponent coming up here with Stillman (Valley), and we’re not trying to overlook anybody or anything like that, but we are talking about things we need to improve on and to improve on them in games like tonight and Thursday.”

By the numbers: Samantha Miller led the Rockets with five points, Brooke Legnaioli scored three, and seven Rockets scored two. Mackenzie Hahn had six rebounds for the Rockets, and Gabby Janes led the Cogs with six. Nay had four steals.

Beyond the stats: After shooting 0 for 9 from 3-point range in the first half, Legnaioli opened the third quarter with a 3 for the Rockets. The Cogs followed with a 24-5 run.

They said it: “We’re not going to play a team better than this one, unless you go really, really deep, and that helps,” Severns said. “I know we got Harvard Thursday and we have to be ready to go, and then our first game in the regional is Marian, and they’re a good team. They’re going to be a handful, and they have one of the best players in the area. We have to play Harvard first before we can worry about that, but playing a team like this can only help before regionals.”

Up next: The Cogs face Stillman Valley in a Big Northern Conference game, while the Rockets close out their inaugural Kishwaukee River Conference slate against Harvard.