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PLANO – Kaneland stunned Yorkville 39-37 at the buzzer Dec. 27 during the team’s opening game in the 54th annual Plano Christmas Classic.
That ended up being the biggest highlight of the week for the Knights, who proceeded to lose to Burlington Central, Morris and Northridge to close out the tournament.
“We’re not thrilled to go 1-3 in this tournament again, but we learned a lot, both good and bad, that we can take away from it,” Kaneland coach Joe Conroy said. “Every opportunity we have to learn and get better is good. Other than the Morris game, we saw key areas that were positives. The question now becomes how can we turn some of that knowledge into success, and only time will tell.”
Daniel Franck’s layup just before the buzzer highlighted a frantic 17-point come-from-behind victory for the Knights against Yorkville.
“That play wasn’t even designed for me, but Rhett [Espe] drove the floor and there was a big opening,” Franck said. “I truthfully thought that big kid [Yorkville’s Jason Lewan] was going to swat me, but it got over the rim and was exciting.”
The Knights appeared to ride that momentum in their next game against No. 1 seed Burlington Central. The Knights hung in against the Rockets in one of the tournament’s most exciting games, but fell 54-47.
The game featured 11 ties and 10 lead changes.
Jake Hed led the Knights with 15 points and Espe had eight points, seven rebounds and six assists, but Kaneland committed 19 turnovers while Burlington had only seven.
“We played exceptionally well, but we made some crucial errors and they took the lead for good,” Conroy said. “We missed some box outs early in the fourth quarter and then we missed some wide-open layups, and when you do that against someone as good as Central, they’re going to punish you for those miscues.”
Against Morris, the Knights fell behind 9-0 and had a miserable afternoon shooting the ball, finishing just 20 percent (7 of 35) from the field, including 11 percent (2 of 18) from 3-point land in a 45-26 loss.
They were much more competitive against Northridge, but ultimately fell 42-40 in overtime.
“I’m not sure what went wrong against Morris, but it didn’t feel like we were ready to go and they put the hammer down in what was a nonconference, conference game,” Conroy said. “And then we made some errors against Northridge that cost us, but the guys understand that and we’ll carry some things into 2017 and maybe get some wins later in the season.”
Some wonderful news for the program came from the sophomore squad, which won the sophomore tournament with a 39-31 victory against Plano.
Will Marshall was named MVP of the sophomore tournament, and Christopher Angelotti was an all-tournament selection.
“It’s awesome, and we had freshmen and their families come out and watch, and six or seven varsity guys there,” Conroy said. “As a coach we’re one program not a bunch of separate levels and they were there to watch the kids have success as a group, which was impressive.”
Kaneland girls basketball
After going 3-1 at the Ottawa holiday tournament, the Knights topped DeKalb 51-50 in a home conference game Dec. 30 to improve to 12-2 overall and 4-1 in Northern Illinois Big 12 play.
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If you go
Who: Kaneland at Rochelle
What: Northern Illinois Big 12 conference boys basketball
When: 7 p.m. Jan. 6
Where: 1401 E. Flagg Road, Rochelle