GENOA – Adam Price was on fire from the start Friday night.
The senior forward scored Genoa-Kingston’s first 12 points in the Cogs’ 63-50 victory over Richmond-Burton. He ended the game with a career-high 29 points as the Rockets couldn’t do anything to stop him.
G-K improved to 11-6 and 3-2 in the Big Northern Conference East Division with the win. R-B falls to 2-13 and 1-1 in conference play.
Price said his success was just a matter of his guards, who were able to consistently break the Rockets’ press, being able to get him the ball. Price moved at the top of the key, and just tried to find an open space in the R-B zone so he could get to the basket and make some shots.
He certainly made plenty.
“That was one of the bigger things we were talking about before the game, just pound the post constantly,” he said. “It seemed to work out to our benefit tonight.”
G-K coach Corey Jenkins said his forward’s success was just a matter of confidence. When Price gets a few baskets early, Jenkins said anything can happen.
“When he gets his first couple shots to drop, he tends to get rolling like that,” Jenkins said.
Rockets coach Brandon Creason said his team just wasn’t able to do anything against Price. He thought his defense left the G-K forward open too often.
“We just sat back, let him catch it in the middle of the lane, attack the rim and then watch the ball go in,” Creason said.
The final score of Friday’s BNC East contest didn’t necessarily indicate how well R-B played G-K throughout the first half. The Rockets were on fire from 3-point range, hitting seven before halftime, and took an eight-point lead into the break.
However, the second half was a different story, when R-B scored only 19 points. The Rockets had success with the 3, but didn’t show much else, according to their coach.
“We don’t convert any buckets in transition, we force lots of steals and we convert steals into turnovers and missed shots,” Creason said. “And so if our 3-pointers don’t fall, we just don’t have a lot of other options right now.”
Defensively, the Cogs had success with the press in the second half, and G-K ended up forcing 17 Rocket turnovers, 10 coming after halftime.
Jenkins also said his team was able to be patient on offense in the final two quarters, after watching his team put up what he called “crazy” shots during the first half.
“The ball movement and post touches were pretty solid in the second half,” Jenkins said. “The things we weren’t doing in the first half.”
Mason Lucca added 13 points for the Cogs, and Tommy Lucca finished with eight.
