Blake Ides’ steal, layup help Genoa-Kingston beat Sandwich

GENOA – Blake Ides had just turned the ball over, leading to a 3-point bucket by Griffin Somlock that put Sandwich ahead of Genoa-Kingston with less than two minutes left.

It didn’t take Ides long to atone for the miscue.

The sophomore swiped the ball and connected on a layup at the other end, giving the Cogs the lead for good in a 62-60 win Thursday.

“I was just going for the ball,” Ides said. “I thought it was going to be a foul at first, but it wasn’t. I just needed to get that ball after I turned it over.”

Sandwich (1-6) led the entirety of the first half, but the second half turned into a back-and-forth affair in which neither team led by more than seven.

The game was tied at 52 in the fourth when the Cogs (3-4) scored seven straight, capped by a steal and layup from Ides – foreshadowing his game-changing play two minutes later.

“I think he had a not-so-great turnover earlier in that sequence,” G-K coach Griffin McNeal said. “He just plays hard. He’s a sophomore, but he plays like his hair is on fire. He’s going to make those sophomore mistakes sometimes, but he’s always going to give you 110%.”

But the Indians rolled off the next eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers for Somlock. The last came when Nick Michalek got a steal and passed the ball to Somlock, who drained his seventh 3-pointer of the game with 1:35 left, putting Sandwich up 60-59.

Simeion Harris then swiped the ball from Ides, but Ides got it right back for the layup with 1:07 left and a 61-60 lead. Somlock missed a 3, Harris got his fifth and final steal of the game, but he was called for a charge at the other end with 18 seconds left.

Marcus Johnson hit a free throw to push the G-K lead to 62-60 with 17.1 seconds left. Somlock then missed a 3 with six-tenths of a second left, and the Cogs hung on for the win.

“We let too many possessions go,” Sandwich coach Matt Chalfin said, “whether that’s we turned it over or defensively we didn’t rebound as well as we probably should have.

“I’m proud of the boys. Their effort was definitely there.”

The Sandwich offense has been powered by twin seniors Dom Rome (6-foot-5) and Quinn Rome (6-6) and the inside game. But with the Cogs in a zone most of the night, the Indians capitalized on the hot shooting of Somlock and Michalek.

Somlock had 22 points and was 7 of 13 from long range, while Michalek was 5 of 16 on 3s and finished with 21 points.

“Griffin and Nick, they have the ability to really shoot it,” Chalfin said. “We haven’t really been able to show it because we haven’t been executing our offense as good. I think our zone offense was really good. We were moving the ball and being super patient.”

The hot shooting is what powered the Indians out of the gate, as they scored 10 of the first 12 points, including Michalek scoring the game’s first eight points. Sandwich led by as much as 10 and never led by less than three in the first half.

“We didn’t come out ready,” Ides said. “[Somlock] shot a couple 3s, we didn’t think he was going to do that. But we played our butts off and finished the game out.”

Ides finished with eight points, five rebounds and three steals. Hayden Hodgson had 19 points as he approaches 1,000 for his G-K career, and Nathan Kleba had 12, including a barrage of 3-pointers in a two-minute stretch between the third and fourth quarters to put the Cogs ahead.

Quinn Rome had 10 points and seven rebounds for the Indians.

“I think we played good in stretches,” McNeal said. “I thought they shot the ball well, and I think they had some guys step up. The two twins in foul trouble, they had some guys step up and play really well.”