The Head-Royce defense controlled Tuesday's game at Bentley. The Jayhawks made 23 steals and held the host team to 22.4 percent shooting in a 79-32 win that improved Head-Royce to 18-1 and stretched its winning streak to 11 games.
Head-Royce never trailed. Marcus Lefkovits scored the first basket on a feed from Bryce Clepper, and Johnny Williams turned two Bentley turnovers into baskets, both on assists from Micah Nyamuzuwe. Leading 11-4, the Jayhawks broke the game open with four straight 3-pointers from Nyamuzuwe, Micah Riebel, Jaden Recker and Zach Gottschalk. Topher Sah's second-chance basket finished a 14-0 run that made it 25-4.
Marcel Pierre-Louis added two baskets on passes from Recker, and Riebel hit two more 3-pointers, the second after a turnover. Lefkovits scored off another takeaway, assisted by Riebel, and Head-Royce led 41-14 at halftime.
The Jayhawks kept scoring after the break. Williams scored twice around a Clepper free throw to finish a 10-0 run that pushed the lead to 46-14. Bentley made back-to-back 3-pointers to cut it to 48-22, but Head-Royce answered with another 10-0 run, a stretch that included a Recker 3-pointer and five points from Sah. Later, from 58-25, Sah scored four straight points, Recker and Osagie Enabulele added points, and Gottschalk's second-chance 3-pointer finished a third 10-0 run for a 68-25 lead. Recker scored eight of the final 11 Head-Royce points, and Sanil Saxena added a 3-pointer. Recker's 3-pointer off a turnover, assisted by Mikael Akpala, closed the scoring and gave the Jayhawks their largest lead of the night at 47 points.
Recker came off the bench to lead all Head-Royce scorers with 16 points on 5-of-10 shooting, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range, and added eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. Williams scored 11 points on 5-of-9 shooting with five rebounds, four steals and a block. Riebel also had 11 points, going 3 for 6 from beyond the arc, and made five steals. Sah scored 11 points off the bench, going 3 for 3 at the line, and grabbed five rebounds, four of them offensive. Nyamuzuwe ran the offense with six assists and five steals, and Gottschalk added eight points.
The team numbers showed how one-sided the game was. Head-Royce assisted on 23 of its 29 field goals and committed only six turnovers. It scored 20 points off turnovers, while Bentley scored none. The Jayhawks won the rebounding battle 46-27, grabbed 18 offensive rebounds and outscored Bentley 16-2 on second-chance points. Their reserves scored 43 points. Bentley went 11 of 49 from the field, 3 of 22 from 3-point range, and had four assists.
Head-Royce, now 18-1, has won 11 straight games.