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GENOA ‐ Technically, the Genoa-Kingston girls basketball team was not using hockey-style line changes in its 61-45 win against Rochelle on Monday.
After all, the Cogs (6-5) don’t have five players on the bench to sub in at a time for a true line change.
But coach Doug Brewington switched out four players at a time every minute or two in a bid to help keep the Cogs fresh in employing their trap defense.
“We just had that go, go go mentality. Don’t stop,” said Ally Poegel, who had 18 points, four rebounds and six steals in the win. “One minute on, one minute off so we can keep going constantly. I like that. I get a break. But it’s been easy to adjust to.”
Brewington, in his first year at Genoa-Kingston after coaching at Hinckley-Big Rock, said one of the biggest things he thought he needed to improve after the Cogs' first 10 games was roster management.
He decided to employ the hockey changes Monday, and wasn’t sure if it will stick. He said it might after the win over the Hubs (3-6).
“We had a couple games this year, Rochelle was one, Belvidere (70-48 loss to start the season) where we’re going six, seven deep with kind of methodical, planned ut subs and the game got away from us late,” Brewington said. “So I realized it’s different here in the Big Northern, you’ve got to have depth. That was my biggest need for improvement coming here. So we talked about it as a team and I think we saw success with it tonight.”
Poegel scored Genoa-Kingston’s first six points and had eight in the first quarter of what was at the time a back-and-forth contest.
The Cogs led 19-18 in the second quarter and scored 12 of the next 14 points in the game to build a 31-20 lead. They never led by less than six the rest of the way.
Carmela Bright capped her 10-point performance for the Hubs with a bucket with 3:26 left, cutting the G-K lead to 51-44. But the Cogs scored the next six to ice the win.
While Genoa-Kingston had 27 turnovers, Rochelle turned the ball over 33 times in the game.
“Our defense, we really prioritized that in practice,” Poegel said. “It was about forcing turnovers and causing chaos.”
The teams met earlier this year at a tournament in Oregon, a 49-44 win for the Hubs.
“We’ve really gotten used to Brew and his playing style and what he needs from each and every one of us,” Poegel said. “It’s just really helped us grow from the last time we played them.”
The Cogs were coming off a 50-32 loss to Byron and 52-19 loss to Stillman Valley last week. Brewington said he wanted to make sure the offense had a strong game after the tough showings on offense against teams that entered Monday a combined 18-0.
“We wanted to push tempo, create chaos,” Brewington said. “Last week we had a tough schedule, ran into a couple powerhouses and they kept us down on the point total. Today we wanted to go out and put up some points. If it meant we gave up 80, as long as we got points on the board. We needed to see that moving forward.”
Audrina Rodriguez scored 10 off the bench for the Hubs and added a game-best nine rebounds, as well as four steals.
Presley Meyer had 14 points and six rebounds for the Cogs. Regan Creadon added 11 points and seven rebounds.
The Cogs start play in the Richmond-Burton tournament on Friday against Johnsburg.
“Our game plan was let’s go out tonight and cause some chaos, have some fun,” Brewington said. “We’ll get organized and cleaned up after the game. As soon as we got in the locker room after the game the girls were like all year, we’re in. So it’s something we’re going to weigh.”