Kankakee cruises to regional finals with semifinal rout of Pontiac

MORRIS – After posting a 23-5 regular season record, the Kankakee boys basketball team hasn’t spent much time sulking in a loss the past few months. But after falling to 57-53 to Class 4A state-ranked Waubonsie Valley in their regular season finale Feb. 17, the Kays had to wait nine days for their chance to get back in the victory column when they took on Pontiac in Wednesday’s IHSA Class 3A Morris Regional semifinal.

The Kays showed that they spent the past nine days ironing out their kinks, scoring the game’s first 19 points on their way to a no-doubt 78-38 win. Kankakee (24-5), the No. 1 seed in its subsectional, will face (4)Sterling at 6 p.m. back in Morris for the regional championship. No. 8 Pontiac saw its season end at 11-18.

Kays head coach Chris Pickett said that their regular season finale, a hard fought loss against a top-notch team, didn’t necessarily leave a bitter taste in their mouths. But what it did do was bring them back to earth after winning 11 of their past 12 games, and helped expose some holes that needed patched up.

"We lost to a quality opponent that helped us refocus, because we had gone on a winning streak of sorts," Pickett said. “It was good competition and let us know where we were, and we used it as a springboard for this. In the playoffs, as you advance, the opponents get tougher and tougher.

“But I liked our effort tonight. I liked our focus, and if we play that way, it doesn’t really matter who we play.”

All nine Kays that played scored, led by Lincoln Williams' 20 points, five rebounds and five assists. Fellow junior guard Myair Thompson wasn’t far behind, finishing with 19 points and three dimes. Senior big man Eli Stipp was also in double figures with a dozen points and seven boards.

After their game-opening run was capped at 19 when Cayden Masching broke the Indian ice with a bucket six minutes in, the Kays settled into leads of 26-3 after a quarter and 45-15 at the half. But until the running clock built a minute or two up in the fourth quarter, Pickett asked his Kays to keep up the intensity as they didn’t just play Pontiac Wednesday, but also challenged themselves to show the strides they’ve been working towards.

“Teenagers tend to get complacent, and we’ve done that a few times this year,” Pickett said. “We’ve gone into halftime with big leads, the other team doesn’t give up and they cut into our lead, and I didn’t want that to happen.

“I’m their coach, and anything I can do as the coach to make sure we’re successful on this playoff run, I’m gonna do it,” he added. “I don’t want to have any regrets all summer.”

As the lone senior in the starting lineup that was also a starter on last year’s team that was upended by Richwoods in a nail-biting 70-66 sectional semifinal loss to Richwoods, Stipp especially knows how crushing a postseason loss can be.

And as a team captain, that’s why he and the Kays are working hard to not have to go through that this season.

“I just told them we don’t want to go out how we went out last year,” Stipp said. “It was a terrible feeling to stay home for state, especially after we lost by four. I just told them I love these guys and want to spend as much time with them as possible.”