Genoa-Kingston 48, St. Edward 38

When St. Edward guards Brett Manning and Josh Dix are shooting lights out, the Green Wave can play with just about anybody.

The lights flickered, but they never went on Wednesday night in a 48-38 loss to top-seeded Genoa-Kingston in a semifinal game of the Class 2A Aurora Christian boys basketball regional.

After scoring 28 points in Monday's win over Plano, Manning was held to 13 points on 4-of-17 shooting in his high school finale.

Dix, a 5-foot-11 junior guard who averaged 22 points in his previous three games and sank six 3-pointers on Monday, was shut out completely by the suffocating defense of 6-2 G-K senior Jimmy Lopez.

Dix finished the game 0 for 9 from the field, 0 for 6 on 3-point attempts.

"They contested pretty much every shot we took," Manning said. "And when we did get them, we just didn't knock them down like we usually do… Their lankiness put a hand in our face every shot. It's kind of hard to hit a contested shot than it is when they have a shorter guy on you."

Despite their shooting woes, the Wave kept pace with the Cogs for most of three quarters. St. Edward erased a 27-21 halftime deficit to tie the game at 31 on a 3-pointer from junior forward Riley Coleman (9 points) with 2:01 to play in the third period.

However, G-K point guard Trevor Muench sank 3 free throws and converted a three-point play in transition to stake the Cogs to a 37-31 lead heading to the fourth quarter. St. Edward pulled no closer than 4 points the rest of the game.

The Cogs (21-6) had the Green Wave (10-17) scouted cold.

"I knew they were capable of shooting lights out, and that was definitely our focus," G-K coach Corey Jenkins said. "For a couple of weeks of practice we planned for playing St. Ed's and covering the perimeter. Jimmy Lopez was guarding (Dix) tonight. We really felt that we wanted to put length on him rather than quickness because we didn't feel that he could get to the basket against us. That was definitely the game plan."

Jenkins' plan included forcing St. Edward forward Steve Martin to beat the Cogs from the paint if he could.

Martin nearly did exactly that. The 6-3 junior scored 14 points on 7-of-16 shooting and grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds to lead the Green Wave in each category.

But even with Martin's output, the Wave shot just 29 percent as a team (16 of 56).

"They played great defensively, but our shots just weren't falling," Martin said.

The fact St. Edward attempted but 2 foul shots in the game didn't help. Nor did the fact G-K sank 11-of-16 attempts from the line.

"The bottom line is we ain't gonna win any games only shooting 2 free throws," St. Edward coach Keith Chuipek said. "I think that's all we shot the whole game. That's kind of surprising, too, because we pounded the ball inside to Steve. We just weren't getting calls. Every time (the officials) just said there was no contact. That's the way they called it and we had to deal with that."