GENOA -- Bryan Miller didn't have much voice left at the end of Monday's Mooseheart-Genoa-Kingston girls basketball game.

While the real cause had nothing to do with screaming at his team, Miller can be forgiven if he wished he had a ventriloquist's ability to "throw" his voice in someone else's voice box.

The Ramblers were close with Genoa-Kingston until late in the second quarter. At that point, the Cogs turned a 25-20 game into a 32-20 halftime margin. In the blink of an eye in the second half, the lead was 20 points and the game was never again competitive.

Genoa-Kingston (4-7) won this Genoa-Kingston Holiday Tournament opener 63-37 over Mooseheart (4-7).

"We just never put a run together," Miller said. "Our defense failed us big-time tonight, giving up that many points. It kind of limited our opportunities to fast break."

Faced with Mooseheart's quickness, Genoa-Kingston played a zone, and the Ramblers were unable to shoot the Cogs back into a man-to-man situation.

"We started in man-to-man and they were getting some inside baskets on us," Genoa-Kingston coach Mike Lauer said. "We decided to go to a zone and make them beat us from the outside. They hit some, but I didn't think they were capable of sustaining any kind of run trying to hit those jump shots."

Molly Meier led Genoa-Kingston with 22 points while Lauren Strohmeier added 20 points.

"I thought we played well," Lauer said. "We did a real nice job pushing up the floor and got some easy baskets in transition."

At the same time, when Mooseheart missed, Genoa-Kingston was invariably there to grab the rebound.

"We told the girls that part of playing in a tournament is bringing it from the get-go," Miller said. "We just didn't have it tonight."

Ruthfee Kollie led Mooseheart with 13 points. Eight Ramblers scored, but the next-highest point total was Katie Stryker, who scored five points.

Mooseheart continues its tournament play Tuesday night with a 7:20 contest with defending champion South Beloit . The Ramblers conclude play in the four-team round robin tournament on Wednesday with a 6 p.m. game against Somonauk.

"That's the good thing about basketball - and life in general," Miller said. "You always have that extra chance. The good thing about a tournament is that you have to come right back the next night. You don't have time to process that loss."

Mooseheart: Stryker 2 1-2 5, Sanchez 1 0-1 2, Mays 2 0-1 4, Tolson 1 1-1 3, Kollie 6 1-3 13, D'Andre 2 0-0 4. Totals 16 4-11 37.

Genoa-Kingston Strohmeier 10 0-0 20, Miller 2 0-0 4, Sartorius 3 0-0 6, McClay 0 1-5 1, Moss 3 1-2 9, Joos 0 0-0 0, Webber 0 0-0 0, Walberg 0 0-0 0, Meier 9 1-2 22, Baert 0 1-2 1. Totals 27 5-11 63.

Mooseheart  11 9 8 9 - 37
Genoa-Kinston 16 16 13 18 - 63

3-point goals: Mooseheart: Phillips 1. Genoa-Kingston: Moss 2, Meier 3. Fouled out: None.