Girls basketball: Ally Poegel hits 1,000 career points, but Genoa-Kingston falls to Polo

GENOA – On a night Ally Poegel hit 1,000 career points for Genoa-Kingston, the more relevant number to the Cogs against Polo on Monday was 25.

The Cogs missed 25 free throws in a 42-40 loss to the Marcos.

“It’s crazy, I’m just happy to do it at home with my teammates,” Poegel said of becoming the ninth player in program history to reach 1,000 points. “It’s just an awesome environment to be around. I wanted it so bad. I knew if I was just confident in myself I was going to get it eventually.”

Poegel, a junior, entered the evening 13 points away from the milestone. After scoring two points in the first half, she was within a bucket at the end of the third quarter.

Her surge coincided with a surge for the Cogs. They went almost 12 minutes without a field goal in the first half, trailed by as many as seven points but led 30-29 after three quarters.

Poegel missed two 3-pointers at the end of the third quarter. She then missed a layup, twice got her rebound but missed both putbacks. With 6:26 left, a layup dropped and she reached the milestone.

“Anytime you’re chasing an accomplishment, you press a little bit, you get a little nervous,” G-K coach Brendan Royalty said. “She settled down there in the second half and really gave us a go with a ton of energy.”

Poegel followed on the next possession with another layup to push the Cogs’ lead to 34-29 with six minutes left, their biggest lead since scoring the game’s first eight points.

Polo trailed 37-33 with 2:44 left, but Cam Jones scored seven straight points for the Marcos. She connected on a three-point play, then with 1:20 left scored on a layup to put Polo up 38-37. She connected on a pair of free throws to push the lead to 40-37 with 41.1 seconds left.

Jones finished with 17 points in the win.

“Cam’s Cam. She’s a gamer,” Polo coach Jason Grobe said of the sophomore guard. “That girl just lives basketball 24-7. It’s nice to have somebody like that on the team. She brings her teammates up while doing it.”

The Marcos were up 42-39 with 2.5 seconds left when Poegel launched a 3-pointer from about 8 feet beyond the top of the line in traffic and was fouled. But she missed the first free throw and after making the second intentionally missed the third.

Jones got the rebound, was immediately fouled with 1.5 seconds left but missed both shots. Elizabeth Davis grabbed the rebound for the Cogs, her 15th of the game, but her desperation heave the length of the court was short.

“The group of girls we have, they don’t give up until the clock says zero,” Grobe said. “They are going to play until the horn goes off. That’s our mentality. It’s a good group to have and a good mentality for them.”

Madison Glawe had eight rebounds for Polo, Sydnei Rahn had seven boards and Courtney Grobe had five. Elsa Monaco had eight points.

Poegel led G-K with 17 points. Sydney Hansen scored 11 for the Cogs while grabbing six rebounds. Zoe Boylen had eight rebounds while Regan Creadon had six. G-K finished with a 46-40 edge on the boards.

The Cogs finished the game 10 for 35 from the free-throw line while the Marcos were 18 for 29. At one point in the fourth quarter all five Cogs in the game had four fouls on them.

“I say we got to practice tomorrow,” said Poegel, who had five steals. “That’s what we’re doing tomorrow. Free throws for sure.”