Kankakee roars back to force OT, loses heartbreaker to Ottawa

KANKAKEE – In his decade leading the Ottawa girls basketball program, head coach Brent Moore and the Pirates have celebrated plenty of victories, putting together winning seasons in nine straight years this winter.

But as successful as the Pirates have been, a regional championship continued to elude the program.

After leading for virtually the entire first three quarters of Thursday’s Class 3A Kankakee Regional championship against the host Kays, it looked for a moment like the Pirates again would fall just shy of reaching their goal when the Kays opened the fourth quarter on a 9-0 run to pull ahead 27-20 more than halfway into the frame.

But with their backs against the wall, the Pirates scored eight of the last nine points in regulation to force overtime, where they took command early and held on for a 36-33 thriller of a win.

Ottawa improved to 24-7 as it snapped a 13-year regional drought for the program, the team’s best record since 2008-09. The Pirates will face Morton in Tuesday’s Ottawa Sectional semifinal.

“This group is the one that deserves it,” Moore said. “From the very first day of practice, I’ve said this group has something special. We’re senior-heavy, something special with every piece to the puzzle.”

Once Skylar Dorsey’s 3-pointer put the Pirates on the board with 3:50 left in the opening quarter, they seized a 3-2 lead that they grew to as large as six through a defensive slugfest, maintaining it through the third quarter at 20-18.

But the Kays broke out to start the fourth, scoring the first nine points to take a 27-20 lead when TaLeah Turner sank a pair of free throws with 3:25 left in regulation.

As the laws of probability quickly switched to the Kays' favor, the Bulldogs snapped out of their funk when Marlie Orlandi made it a 27-22 game with 3:13 left.

Dorsey hit another 3 to cut the deficit to 27-25 with two minutes left, and after she was fouled on another 3-point attempt with 48 seconds left, hit all three of her free throws to put the Pirates back on top 28-27.

Turner, the Kays' four-year starting point guard, was fouled with eight seconds left, splitting her free throws to send the game to overtime and the crowd into a frenzy.

After a 1-for-15 effort from behind the arc in regulation, Orlandi opened the extra period with a momentous 3-pointer that gave the Pirates a lead they’d never lose, even after Turner hit a 3-pointer just before the final horn.

Turner is one of three seniors, alongside Benkwasha Stroud and Kendyl Christon, who have given Kays coach Kurt Weigt four varsity seasons. While the last game of the season will never be easy, saying goodbye to a trio of girls he’s spent countless hours with for four years made Thursday’s ending that much tougher to swallow as their season ended with an 18-13 record, a win shy of a regional three-peat.

“It doesn’t always end the way you want, but there’s only one team that gets a victory at the end of the season,” Weigt said. “They’ve given us everything they had. They’re like daughters to me and they’re always gonna be part of our basketball family, part of our school family.”

Turner led the Kays with 11 points, six rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block. Sophomore forward Ava Johnson tallied 10 points, 12 boards, a steal and a block. The pair combined for all of the Kays' scoring on their fourth-quarter run, a run Weigt said came from this group’s grit and determination.

“Part of it is you just don’t want this thing to be over,” Weigt said. “You just dig in and decide this isn’t anything we haven’t seen. We just had to go out and execute a little better.”

Orlandi had 15 points, eight rebounds, two assists, three steals and a block to lead the Pirates. Dorsey also was in double figures with 10 points, five assists, two rebounds and a steal.