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GENOA – Genoa-Kingston started the year with a three-point win against Hinckley-Big Rock at a tournament in Oregon.
Since then, Martin Ledbetter has been looking forward to the rematch.
It came Thursday, with Ledbetter scoring 19 points and grabbing 15 rebounds as the Royals never trailed after the first quarter in a 51-40 win over the Cogs.
“I was looking forward to this game,” Ledbetter said. “It was a tough loss, only losing by three early in the season. Coming in and beating them like this, it felt good.”
“I was looking forward to this game. It was a tough loss, only losing by three early in the season. Coming in and beating them like this, it felt good.”
— Martin Ledbetter, Genoa-Kingston boys basketball
Ledbetter had a quiet first quarter, and the Royals (5-3) trailed 15-10. But Ledbetter sank his only 3-pointer of the night with 44.1 seconds left in the half, kicking off a 25-5 run that stretched into the third quarter.
The Cogs (5-3) went more than 11 minutes without a field goal.
“I think we had a good start,” Ledbetter said. “I think that’s always good. Hit them hard and stepped on throats early and kept it that way the whole game.”
The Cogs shot 31% from the floor for the game - and that was after shooting 55% in the first quarter. They made just nine of their 38 shots over the last three quarters, a 24% clip.
Hayden Hodgson scored 19 to lead the Cogs, but struggled from the floor. When the Royals switched to a zone defense, coach Griffin McNeal said he waited too long to move Hodgson into the middle. After making just two of his first 14 shots, he made six of his final nine over the last quarter and a half.
McNeal said it was one of those nights where the ball just wasn’t falling through the hoop for his team.
“We just struggled to put the ball in the basket,” McNeal said. “I thought we had some good looks. Probably a few too many turnovers, but we put Hayden in the middle probably a little too late. He handles the ball a lot for us, and we don’t love to stick him in the middle against a zone, but he started to heat up once we put him in the middle.”
Hinckley-Big Rock coach Seth Sanderson said he liked Ledbetter’s performance. He said he was glad to see the 6-5 forward increase his paint presence and not settle for as many 3-pointers - even though it was his 3 that sparked the Royals on Thursday.
“Sometimes he gets into a ‘no, no, no, good shot’ type thing,” Sanderson said. “That was a shot, he was balanced. He was squared up. It was a good shot. ... That was the spark for us in the first half for sure.”
Tyler Smith scored 12 for the Royals, going 3 for 5 from long range. Sanderson said it was good to see him continue his strong start to the season from the perimeter.
“When you have a guy like Martin in the paint, you have to have somebody to shoot the ball on the outside to draw everybody back out,” Sanderson said. “I thought he’s done a really good job taking advantage of that, spacing the floor for us.”
The Royals finished with a 37-21 edge on the boards. Landon Roop had seven boards for the Royals, while Nathan Kleba had a team-best six for the Cogs. John Krueger scored eight for the Cogs.
Sanderson said he felt Thursday’s win was the first time this year the Royals were able to slow things down and impose their pace for the full game.
“Myself included, but I think for the kids that’s a big factor,” Sanderson said after avenging a 53-50 loss to the Cogs to start the year. “For me, you don’t really get those measuring sticks where it’s a very clear, like, ‘Hey, here’s a team and a score, now three weeks later let’s see where we’re at,’ type of thing.”