Boys Basketball: Kays come up short in marquee conference matchup with Rich Township

KANKAKEE — The Kankakee boys basketball team faced one of its biggest tests of the season on Tuesday when it hosted Rich Township in a matchup between the top two teams in the Southland Athletic Conference, and two of the top teams in the state. The game lived up to the hype.

It was a close game throughout, but featured just one lead change. Unfortunately for the Kays, that was when the Raptors took a 49-48 lead with 1:15 left in the third quarter. The Kays would not be able to reclaim the lead they held for most of the night, eventually losing 67-65.

Kankakee fell to 12-3 on the season and 5-1 in conference play while Rich Township improved to 12-4, 4-0, taking sole possession of first in the Southland.

After the Raptors took their 49-48 lead, they stayed hot until their lead reached 61-50. The Kays responded by scoring the next eight points to make it a one-score game. They would get within one point two times, first at 64-63 and then at 66-65 with 9.1 seconds left in the game after a tough finish from Lincoln Williams.

After Rich Township’s Kavon Ammons went 1-of-2 from the line with 5.3 seconds left, Williams had his half-court heave come up short.

Kankakee’s first loss of the season was 54-50 against Bolingbrook on Dec. 7. The Kays then won eight in a row before falling 65-63 to Curie on Jan. 4.

Tuesday’s loss shared a few things in common with the previous two. Head coach Chris Pickett said that in all three games, the Kays had a vital stretch where they failed to play to their potential.

“You’ve got to play 32 minutes when the teams are good like this,” he said. “Bolingbrook, Curie and now Rich, that’s three losses to three ranked teams by a combined eight points. In each game we had a three or four-minute period where we didn’t execute like we wanted to on both ends of the court. That can’t happen. In order to beat a team like this you have to play well for 32 minutes.”

The stretch Tuesday encompassing the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth was just long enough for the Kays to fall into a hole they would be unable to escape. Even though they were nearly able to overcome it, Pickett said that even just a handful of lapses can be deadly if they come at the wrong time.

“We had some defensive breakdowns,” he said. “We let their shooters get loose. We let them get downhill and get to their comfortable spots on the court. We had a couple turnovers that led to fast breaks for them, and you can’t do that. You’ve got to take care of the ball in those situations.”

The teams’ five starters did all of the team’s scoring on Tuesday, with Lincoln Williams and Jordan Davis doing the heavy lifting in the first half with 10 points apiece. After scoring seven points in the first half, Myair Thompson scored 10 more in the second half to finish with a team-high 17 points.

Williams and Davis both finished with 16 points while Eli Stipp neared a double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds. Kenaz Jackson rounded out the Kankakee box score with six points.

But the group fell just a few points shy. Pickett said that the team has been able to grow and learn from their losses this season, but at this point in the season, they are ready to put those losses behind them and finish strong.

“I felt like we grew a lot from the first two L’s,” he said. “I thought we grew enough where now this one could work to our advantage. Now we’re in the second half of the season and we can’t learn any more lessons, we need to see our results. All the work we’ve put in has to turn into results. We’ve got to take this loss and try to turn it into another winning streak for ourselves.”

A winning streak is certainly in the realm of possibility for the Kays. Over the next six games, they will play five teams that currently have a losing record. The only winning team they will face in that stretch is Class 1A St. Anne on Jan. 22.

They have two conference games in that span as well, first at home against Thornridge on Jan. 21 and then on the road against Thornton on Jan. 24. Both teams are in the bottom three of the conference standings.

Pickett said he wants to see the team really establish themselves down the stretch and help bolster their already-solid postseason resume.

“I’m looking forward to us asserting ourselves and putting ourselves in a position so we can start looking at where we’ll be for a state playoff,” he said. “I think right now we would be a No. 1 seed in our sectional, especially if you look at strength of schedule and the types of performances we had in those games, we can set ourselves up to have a pretty good seed.”

With the Raptors now in the Southland driver’s seat after Tuesday’s win, Pickett said the Kays need to win the remainder of their conference games leading into the rematch with Rich Township.

“We’re playing a long game,” he said. “What’s important for us conference-wise is to make sure we win all of our other games because Rich will be our last conference game. When we go there, maybe we can sour some things by winning. We’ve got a lot in between now and then, so we just need to take care of our business on our end.”

UP NEXT

Kankakee will be at home again on Jan. 17 to host Clemente in nonconference action. The game is scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m.

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