BYRON — Adam Head didn’t have time to slowly adjust to varsity basketball. A first-year starter, the Byron junior obviously didn’t need it.

Head has scored at least 20 points in each of his past three games. His 24 points Thursday led the Tigers to a 68-55 home win against Genoa-Kingston to keep Byron undefeated in the Big Northern West.

This is Head’s first season on varsity. Last year the 6-foot-4 forward led Byron to the BNW title at the sophomore level.

“He led that team, so we knew what he could do,” Byron coach Tom Schmidt said. “Last year we didn’t go really deep on the bench, so he wouldn’t have gotten to play much on varsity.

“He just has a real natural feel for the basket and he plays strong and aggressive.”

Head scored 14 of his points on layups off the backboard, most of which came with two G-K defenders in his face.

“He was a load tonight,” Cogs coach Corey Jenkins said. “He threw up some things that I didn’t think had a chance of going in.”

It took Byron (11-2, 2-0 BNW) until the fourth quarter to pull away from Genoa-Kingston (8-7, 1-2). The Tigers had a four-point halftime lead thanks to 16 points from Head.

Byron, which had a six-point advantage (48-42) heading into the fourth, went 8-for-10 at the free-throw line in the last quarter while G-K went 3-for-11 in 3-pointers trying to catch up.

“We have to find some consistency and stop putting up so many poor shots in the fourth quarter,” said Jenkins, who also lost in the fourth quarter at Winnebago on Tuesday. “We knew these two were tough road games, and we’ve gotten them out of the way. These were the two places we lost last season, so we just have to stay upbeat and win at home.”

Kyle Smith followed Head with 17 points, while Cody Lindsey chipped in 11 and Doug Lillibridge had seven rebounds.

Scott Suchy (16 points), Trevor Muench (13) and Ryan Muir (12) scored in double figures for the Cogs.

- Emily Tropp, rrstar.com