Ottawa girls, Kaneland boys pull away for wins in Interstate 8 openers

OTTAWA – The Ottawa Pirates built a lead, withstood a second-half rally and then pulled away for a win in the opening girls game of an Interstate 8 Conference twin bill Friday evening in Kingman Gym.

Then the Kaneland Knights did the same in the boys nightcap, both triumphing on I-8 Conference opening night with Ottawa’s girls prevailing 34-27 and Kaneland’s boys victorious 66-49.

Girls: Ottawa 34, Kaneland 27

The host Pirates (6-2 overall, 1-0 in the I-8) crafted an advantage that reached as many as 14 points, at 25-11, midway through the third quarter. Kaneland (4-3, 0-1), however, closed the third quarter on a 9-0 rally to slice its deficit to 25-20 heading into the fourth.

Recapturing the shooting touch, ball security and ability to defend without fouling that allowed them to build their lead in the first place, Ottawa – which suffered seven third-quarter turnovers – answered with the first four points of the final quarter on baskets by first Ella Schmitz and then Hailey Larsen.

“The third quarter was a rough one for us,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “It started fine, and then all of a sudden [Kaneland] switched their defense and put that little ballpress in on us ... but once we got that cleaned up out of a timeout, we were able to get organized and finish the game.”

It wasn’t until sophomore sixth girl Ashlyn Ganiere’s old-fashioned three-point play with 1:18 remaining, however, that the Pirates truly put away the rally-minded Knights.

“The leadership that some of our seniors have really gives us the energy and pushes us to keep going even when we’re tired,” said Ganiere. “My role is to get downhill and kick to our shooters, but I felt like since I was open [on the late three-point play], I could just take my shot. ...

“It’s good to get that first [conference] win under our belt.”

Ganiere finished with seven points off the bench, complementing starting teammates Skylar Dorsey’s nine points and three assists, Mary Stisser’s three assists and three steals, Larsen’s eight-point, 10-rebound, three-steal, two-block performance and Marlie Orlandi’s eight-point, five-steal effort.

Kaneland was led by Samantha Kerry (seven points, seven rebounds), Kendra Brown (five points, five rebounds, three steals), Charlotte Krage (four points, five rebounds), Grace Brunscheen (four points) and Kyra Lilly (three points, five steals).

“We tried to make it an emphasis at halftime to be the more aggressive team,” Knights coach Brian Claesson said. “We weren’t the first three minutes [of the second half], then we called a timeout, put our 1-2-2 press on them, and that got us some energy and got us back in the game. Then we just ran out of energy.”

Boys: Kaneland 66, Ottawa 49

Kaneland’s boys never trailed. The Knights (4-1, overall, 1-0 in the I-8) scored the game’s initial five points on two quick Luke Reinert baskets and waxed that advantage as large as 23 points in the late third quarter before the Pirates (5-1, 0-1) – specifically 6-3 senior Aric Threadgill – got hot and drew as close as nine points, 55-46 with 4:14 left to play.

Like Ottawa’s girls before them, though, Kaneland’s boys responded promptly and definitively with buckets from Reinert, Evan Frieders, Jeffrey Hassan and Brayden Seaton to push Ottawa’s deficit back into double digits and cruise from there.

All five Kaneland starters – Reinert (13 points, three assists), Frieders (10 points, six rebounds, four assists), Fredrick Hassan (10 points, six rebounds), Jeffrey Hassan (10 points, six rebounds, four steals) and junior point guard/Aurora Christian transfer Marshawn Cocroft (11 points, game-high seven assists) – scored in double digits.

“We try to feed it into our post guys,” Cocroft said, “but I saw [Ottawa] was packing it in, not letting me create. I know when I create, it gets my teammates open, and their coach was smart enough to pack it in, but tonight we were able to feed both our big men, and when they [packed it in] that left my 2 and 3 guards open.

“That’s the reason we were able to get everyone scoring.”

Seaton added 10 points, with Preston Popvich scoring five.

“There are some things we can work on, for sure, but we did shoot well overall,” Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said. “And it was nice to see five guys in double digits. We hadn’t had that yet.”

Threadgill’s fourth-quarter heroics featured 14 final-period points on 5-of-6 shooting, including 4-of-5 from 3-point range. He finished with a team-high 18, followed by Owen Sanders’ 14 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots.

Evan Snook added four assists for the Pirates on a night Ottawa (43.6% shooting, 13 turnovers, 9 of 17 of field goals assisted) played pretty well, but not well enough to put a real scare into conference favorite Kaneland (57.1% shooting, 11 turnovers, 18 of 28 of field goals assisted).

“Early, I didn’t think we had much comfort out on the floor,” Pirates coach Mark Cooper said, “but as the game went on, we settled into running some better offense and doing some good things, and we had it down to nine. But there’s just not much margin for error.

“We’re disappointed we couldn’t get the job done, but we still think there was some good growth from our team.”