Head-Royce forced 22 steals and used an 18-0 run to pull away from Concord JV for a 69-38 road win on Thursday, Dec. 22. The Jayhawks improved to 6-3 and have won four straight games.
Concord JV scored first and led 4-2 early before Richard Jones got the Jayhawks going. Jones scored seven straight Head-Royce points, and his 3-pointer put the Jayhawks in front 9-6. Micah Riebel followed with two baskets for a 13-9 lead, but Concord JV answered with a basket and a 3-pointer to go ahead 14-13. That was the game's only lead change.
Head-Royce answered with an 8-0 run and never trailed again. Kento Tsuji tied the game at 14 with a free throw, Ezra Goldfarb scored off a turnover, Tsuji hit a 3-pointer and Jonah Greenberg converted another turnover to make it 21-14. Greenberg added three more points during a stretch that pushed the lead to 25-16, and Zac Gottschalk's 3-pointer made it 30-18. Jones made two free throws and later scored off a turnover as Head-Royce went up 37-22.
Concord JV scored the next five points to get within 37-27, and Head-Royce responded with the game's decisive stretch. Riebel started the 18-0 run with a 3-pointer, and Greenberg scored seven points during it, including two baskets off turnovers. Tsuji added a basket, Riebel scored twice more and Henry Tatara finished the run with a basket off a turnover for a 55-27 lead. After a Concord JV basket, Riebel and Tatara hit back-to-back 3-pointers in a 6-0 burst that made it 61-29. Baskets by Tatara and Jones pushed the lead to its high of 33 points, at 67-34 and 69-36, before Concord JV scored the game's final basket.
Greenberg, a sophomore, led all Head-Royce scorers with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and also had five steals and two blocks. Riebel, also a sophomore, scored 16 points on 7-of-16 shooting, made two 3-pointers and added five steals and two assists. Jones, a junior, scored 13 points and had three steals. Tatara, a freshman, scored seven points on 3-of-5 shooting. Tsuji made both of his field-goal attempts and scored six points. Goldfarb, a freshman, scored four points and led the team with four rebounds and three assists to go with four steals.
The defense decided the game. Head-Royce recorded 22 steals, and eight different Jayhawks had at least one. The Jayhawks scored 12 points off turnovers and put up 59 shots to Concord JV's 23. Concord JV made 16 of those 23 attempts (70 percent), but the extra possessions let Head-Royce pull away. The Jayhawks shot 27 of 59 from the field (46 percent), made 6 of 20 from 3-point range and went 9 of 19 at the free-throw line.
Head-Royce is now 6-3 on the 2022-23 season and has won four games in a row.