Marcus Johnson’s 21 points help Genoa-Kingston pull away from Harvard

GENOA − The shots weren’t falling for Genoa-Kingston and an 11-point lead against Harvard early dwindled to four in the third quarter.

But the Cogs started crashing the boards and had solid ball movement throughout the second half to pull away to a 62-48 win.

“Those things get your momentum going, get your juices going, get you in the moment of the game,” said Marcus Johnson, who had 21 points and a team-best seven rebounds. “You can take teams like those and lay the hammer on them, put them in the dust.”

The Hornets (5-19) pulled to within 25-21 with 7:17 left in the third on a layup by DeAndre Keller, who finished with 20 points and 10 rebounds.

The Cogs (14-15) scored 15 of the next 17 points and the lead never shrunk below 12 the rest of the way.

G-K finished with a 49-34 edge on the boards, including a 10-4 advantage in the third quarter. Also in the third, they had a 7-0 edge on the offensive glass.

“I think a lot of that frustration comes out a little bit and you look for other ways to impact the game,” G-K coach Griffin McNeal said. “‘Hey, we’re not shooting it well, we better crash the glass a little bit more.‘”

Senior Hayden Hodgson missed all eight of his 3-point attempts but finished with 10 points, six rebounds and three steals. Senior Nathan Kleba also struggled from long range, shooting 0 for 6, but had four rebounds and two steals.

McNeal said the fact it was senior night may have played a role in the team’s shooting struggles.

“They may have been a little hyped up for senior night and the emotions that come with that,” McNeal said. “I think you see that happen. But also if you shoot a lot of 3s, you know you’re going to make three or four in a row and you’re going to miss five or six in a row. It’s a small margin of error. But they were good shots. I wasn’t really mad at any of them. Some days you don’t got it, but they did a good job adjusting in the second half and getting to the rim.”

In addition to Keller’s double-double, Adam Cooke added 21 points and 12 rebounds. The duo combined for 41 of the Hornets' 48 points and 22 of their 34 rebounds.

Harvard coach Brian Heidtke said as the postseason approaches, he hopes to see other scorers step up like Ryan Bennett and Julian Acosta.

“That’s kind of been the recipe all season,” Heidtke said. “We need Acosta and Bennett, who can usually get to eight, 10 points, we needed them tonight and they just didn’t find the hoop.”

Heidtke also said it’s hard to go against a team on senior night, and once the Cogs got their transition game going in the second half that made a difference and the Hornets ran out of gas.

Genoa-Kingston has five seniors, and each got the start, with Johnson moving to the bench. In addition to Hodgson and Kleba, John Swinehart had five points, four rebounds and three steals while Peyton Meyer had nine points. And the crowd erupted when Nolan Kline hit his only basket of the game in the fourth.

Junior Blake Ides also had 11 for the Cogs.

“It was senior night, it was dedicated to them,” Johnson said. “I didn’t really want to steal their glory or anything. It was a good win, though we could have been more efficient with the ball, could have played better defense. But it’s a good win, put us back on track for regionals.”