Girls basketball: Emily Trzynka, Genoa-Kingston snap 5-game losing streak with win over Richmond-Burton

GENOA – A dominant second quarter paved the way for Genoa-Kingston to snap a five-game losing streak Monday, topping Richmond-Burton, 47-21.

The Rockets (2-16) led after the first quarter, 8-7, but managed only one field goal in the second quarter – a layup by Joy Holian with 3 seconds left. The Cogs (14-11) outscored them, 20-4, in the quarter.

“We have parts of play where we can’t score,” R-B coach Stephanie Oslovich said. “If we hit a couple layups and hit a couple shots, that leaves us in the game a little bit earlier and we’re not in a situation where we down 15, 20. It’s hard to dig yourself out of that constantly. That’s one of those things, getting that mental toughness of getting to the rim and being able to score.”

Emily Trzynka sparked the Cogs off the bench in the win, scoring 10 points, grabbing seven rebounds and getting five steals as both teams forced 25 turnovers in the game.

Trzynka scored the Cogs’ first six points of the second quarter.

“She [Trzynka] brings energy and is a spark,” G-K coach Brendan Royalty said. “She’s learning the game and having a little bit more fun doing it.”

The win ended the five-game skid, during which four of the losses were by double-digits, including three games last week all against conference opponents.

“I think we played well as a team,” Trzynka said. “We’ve had some hard games and have really come together as a team. I feel like we redeemed ourselves after that past week.

The Rockets hung around for a little while in the third and trailed, 31-17, with 3:35 left in the quarter. But Genoa-Kingston scored 10 points to close the quarter after managing only four in the first 4-plus minutes.

“This was a big win,” Royalty said. “This is one I was hoping to get for sure. But we played good competition for those five games and where we’re at, where our weaknesses are.”

Bryce Boylan led the Cogs with 11 points and added nine rebounds and two steals. Emily Gilbert had eight points, 10 rebounds and three steals.

For the Rockets, Itziar Fernandez led the way with eight points and 12 rebounds. Holian added five points, nine rebounds and four steals.

R-B shot 7 for 51 (13.7%) in the loss and were 0 for 8 from 3-point range.

“I felt like we were a couple steps behind today,” Oslovich said. “Being those two, three steps behinds it lets the defense have time to recover. They’re on a help line, and you’re trying to get to the rim, and then we couldn’t find any pockets today. We were getting the shots and getting the layups, they were just always guarded though.”