Boys basketball: Dixon rallies past Genoa-Kingston with 13-0 third-quarter run

DIXON – The Dixon and Genoa-Kingston boys basketball teams traded baskets for most of the first half Tuesday night, but the Dukes grabbed more than a dozen steals and scored frequently on the fast break to win 52-36 at Lancaster Gym.

The Cogs had the advantage early, building a 14-10 lead through one quarter, but it wouldn’t last long. Alec Golembiewski, Jake Oates and Josh Bunting fueled the fast start with one 3-pointer each.

Genoa-Kingston grabbed a 9-6 lead on a Bunting right-wing 3 off an Oates steal with 2:17 to play, and Colin Nesler put back a Bunting missed layup to stretch the lead to 11-6 just more than a minute later.

Golembiewski’s buzzer-beater 3 brought the lead back to two scores at 14-10, but the Dukes would respond in short order.

In the second quarter, Dixon went on a 15-5 run, including a 6-0 run in the last four minutes to capture the lead heading into halftime.

Dukes coach Chris Harmann attributed much of the late-second-quarter swing to increased defensive intensity.

“I thought defensively we started to get some more deflections, and we were just doing a better job of keeping them out of the paint. We got in some passing lanes and got some steals, some turnovers,” Harmann said, “and they led to easy buckets on the other end of the court. I think our defensive intensity really kind of got better as the game went on and shut down some things they were trying to do.”

In the first 2:01 of the period, the Dukes knotted the game at 14-all. Dixon’s Jacob Gaither opened the second-quarter scoring with a layup on a drive along the baseline to pull within 14-12 with about 6:30 on the clock. Sky Goral nabbed a steal and took it the distance about 30 seconds later to tie the game.

The two teams traded baskets until the score was 19-all. At that point, Dixon went on a 6-0 run to close out the quarter.

The Dukes swung the momentum with back-to-back steals and fast-break layups by Goral and Gaither, pulling ahead 23-19 with 3:17 to play. Dixon’s Austin Hicks jumped a passing lane and scored another fast-break layup with 1:07 left to make it a 25-19 lead. That was the score at halftime.

“We had a talk at the end of the first, and you know, just defensive pressure we had to get up,” Gaither said. “We had to read passes, and that’s what we did. We got turnovers and turned them into points on offense.”

For the first two minutes of the third quarter, the Cogs were able to keep up, and they even tied the game at 25 with 6:20 to play after a Nesler driving layup and free throw.

Over the next five-and-a-half minutes, however, Dixon got red hot, pulling ahead 38-25 after a 13-0 run.

Steals and fast-break layups fueled the scoring streak, which began on a Hicks mid-range jumper with 5:43 to play. Over the next five minutes, Riley Abell hit a right-wing 3, Bryce Feit made a layup, and Goral hit a free throw. Gaither knocked down a contested mid-range jumper to expand the lead to 35-25 with 2:16 to go, then Goral capped the scoring run with a left-wing 3 a little over a minute later.

Gaither hit a 3 with about two seconds left, and the Dukes took a 41-28 lead at the end of the third.

“It was basically the same thing [as the second quarter run],” Gaither said. “Just sprinting spot-to-spot, reading the passes, and then we were knocking down shots, running our plays, getting open layups.”

Nesler scored all nine of Genoa-Kingston’s points in the third quarter on and-1 plays, but it wasn’t enough to turn the tide.

In the fourth quarter, Dixon outscored Genoa-Kingston 11-8.

Wyatt Wetzell opened the period with a layup in the first 15 seconds, building the lead to 43-28. Then Goral put back a shot for a 45-28 lead with 6:26 to go. Wetzell nailed a pair of free throws to make it 48-28 with 5:17 to play, and the lead became insurmountable for the Cogs.

“We had pulled it to 25-25 and it seemed like we had momentum, and a couple things went our way,” Genoa-Kingston coach Ethan Franklin said. “And I didn’t think our guys responded very well. And they took advantage of it.”

Gaither led the way for the Dukes with 16 points, four rebounds and four steals, and Goral chipped in 12 points, four rebounds and two steals.

Nesler paced the Cogs with 15 points, eight rebounds and two blocks, while Golembiewski added nine points and three rebounds.