Girls basketball: Familiar rivals Sycamore, Kaneland to clash in sectional semifinal

Coaches often say you can throw scouting reports out the window when two rivals face each other.

Of course, when two teams play as often as Sycamore and Kaneland do, who even needs them?

When the Sycamore and Kaneland girls basketball teams clash on Tuesday in the semifinals of the Class 3A Sycamore Sectional, it will be the sixth meeting over the past two seasons between the teams.

“We’ve played so many times the girls know their strengths and weaknesses - and obviously Sycamore has a lot of strengths,” Kaneland coach Brian Claesson said. “The last couple of practices have focused more on improving ourselves, and hopefully that correlates to the matchup with Sycamore. The girls are excited for it.”

It’s the fourth postseason meeting between the two teams since the playoffs split into four classes. The Spartans have won all three meetings, all in regional finals. Sycamore (23-10) has also won both games this year.

Thanks to their 45-37 win over Prairie Ridge in the Kaneland regional, the Knights (24-9) are in the sectional round for the first time since 2017. The Spartans have five regional crowns and a sectional title in that span.

“This is their first regional [title] so they want it just as bad as we do,” Sycamore senior guard Monroe McGhee said. “But I think it comes down to just playing our game and finishing strong.”

The Spartans picked up a 68-38 win over Belvidere, eliminating the Bucs in their home regional. Now the Spartans head to their home sectional and another date with the Knights.

The teams played Feb. 10 in Sycamore with the Interstate 8 title on the line. The Spartans rolled to a 46-25 win, keeping Kaneland off the scoreboard in the second quarter. Of the six meetings over the past two years, Sycamore has won five of them.

“I think it’s going to be about doing the things we need to do to limit what they’re good at,” Sycamore coach Adam Wickness said. “I think we did a really good job of that last game, but we’re not going to hang our hats on the fact that we took it to them last game. We’re coming out with the same energy and same effort that we’ve been playing with for the last 15 to 17 games.”

In the team’s first meeting this year, the Knights led throughout the game until Sophia Klacik made a 3-pointer with 1:26 left, the last points for either team. It was Sycamore’s first lead in the 46-45 win.

“We were leading the whole game and we really felt like we let it slip away,” Claesson said. “The second game they just straight-up dominated us. We’re not sure if we can play worse than we did last time, and credit to them because they played so well and put us in situations we weren’t familiar with. It was a good learning experience, I hope.”

Last year, the Knights snapped a losing streak against the Spartans that dated back to 2017. They’ve played four times since, including two Sycamore wins this season.

Kendra Brown powered the Knights’ offense in the first game, but was frustrated defensively by freshman Quinn Carrier in the rematch. Carrier was barely a role player in the first meeting but is a starter now who scored 19 points against Belvidere.

“It will be hard to beat them for a third time,” Carrier said. “I think we just have to talk on defense. Our defense plays a huge role in this game. So I think if we do good on D it will impact our offense.”

Claesson said the Spartans are a very experienced team with a lot of big games under their belts, and he hopes both the nail-biter in Maple Park and the blowout loss in the defacto conference championship game helped the Knights in that department as well.

“Obviously it was for a conference championship, a big game where we both came in tied at the top,” Claesson said. “And Sycamore has played in a lot of big games over the years and controlled that game on offense and defense. So I’m hoping learning that can help us in the next really big game.”