Boys Basketball: Kankakee rallies late, earns season sweep of Bloom

KANKAKEE — He grew up as a part of it in the bleachers and now both plays in it and has read about it, but during Tuesday night’s pivotal Southland Athletic Conference matchup against Bloom, Kankakee junior guard Myair Thompson and the Kays boys basketball team saw how their high-energy crowd can affect games.

After trailing at the end of both the second and third quarters, the Kays rallied behind a fanbase that energized them to rally in the final frame for a narrow 55-52 victory. The Kays improved to 18-3 and 6-1 in the Southland with their sixth win a row that locked up a season sweep against the Blazing Trojans (14-7, 5-2).

“A lot of people say and I’ve read things where people say when you come to Kankakee, when the crowd gets hyped the team gets hyped,” Thompson, who led the Kays with 14 points, said. “The crowd gave us energy and that’s how we won the game too.”

He also credited the team’s increased effort and will down the stretch for the win, something both he and head coach Chris Pickett agreed wasn’t there in the early going. After eight lead changes and four ties in the first quarter, one the Kays led 12-11 at the end of, the Blazing Trojans went up 13-12 on Joe Jones' bucket just seconds into the second quarter, a lead they didn’t look like they would let up as it grew to as many as eight points in the second half.

“We had to address the things we can control,” Pickett said. “We can control taking care of the basketball, we can control rebounding, we can control free throws. We did a poor job of that; our energy wasn’t there and we were lackadaisical in the beginning. We changed that in the fourth quarter.”

Facing a 44-36 deficit two minutes into the fourth, Jordan Davis' 3-pointer brought Kays fans to their feet and made it a five-point game. On the ensuing Bloom possession, Thompson poked a steal and tossed a pass to Lincoln Williams, whose rim-rattling dunk broke the volume meter in the Kays' gym.

As the Kays and their crowd fed off each others' energy, they eventually pulled ahead 47-46 when Davis cashed in a pair from the charity stripe with 3:23 remaining, one they nursed to victory.

“Our energy was low, we were losing and the crowd’s energy was low,” Pickett said. “After that sequence (Davis' 3-pointer, Thompson’s steal and Williams' dunk), you could finally see in some of [Bloom’s players'] eyes, ‘We’re on the road and the crowd is getting involved,’ and we used that to boost us.”

Down that final stretch, the Kays attempted to speed the game up out of its methodical half court pace by keeping an extra guard on the floor, junior Cedric Terrell III, in favor of starting center Eli Stipp. That led to a quicker, balanced approach down the floor, resulting in four Kays reaching double figure scoring. Following Thompson’s 14 points, Davis had 13, Kenaz Jackson had 11 and Williams had 10.

Whether playing their usual full court, transition-based style or the slowed down tempo of Tuesday, and against a gauntlet of Class 3A and 4A highly-regarded programs this season, Thompson said the Kays are looking to make a statement as they keep their eyes on their season-long prize.

“This year is a mark to make a run to state,” Thompson said. “We want to show everybody, the 4A schools, the 3A schools, that we’re coming.”

The Kays will continue that march when they visit Thornwood at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

https://daily-journal.com/sports/boys-basketball-kankakee-rallies-late-earns-season-sweep-of-bloom/article_58a8b390-ddff-11ef-ae08-1bf605413c69.html