Sam Kerry, Kyra Lilly step up for Kaneland in road win over La Salle-Peru

LA SALLE – Throughout the season, a lot of Kaneland’s opponents have been focusing their defense on stopping senior Kendra Brown.

And that’s just fine with Kaneland coach Brian Claesson.

“I think a lot of teams think that we’re just Kendra, but we have some other talented girls,” Claesson said. “I have total confidence in the rest of the girls.”

That confidence proved well founded Wednesday as Sam Kerry and Kyra Lilly stepped up offensively and the Knights’ press wreaked havoc as Kaneland rolled to a 58-29 victory over La Salle-Peru in an Interstate 8 Conference game.

“They came out with a box-and-one on Kendra. It was good to see some other girls step up,” Claesson said.

The Knights led 13-8 after the first quarter but then turned up the defensive pressure in the second and started to pull away.

“We really feel the best way to beat that box-and-one is to get some steals and run in transition,” Claesson said. “We think we have pretty good team speed. We always talk about turning defense into offense, and I think we did a pretty good job of that.”

Kaneland forced nine turnovers in the second quarter that led to 11 points as the Knights pushed their lead to 37-15 by halftime.

“I feel like we weren’t exactly awake at first, but we really got it together and picked each other up,” Kerry said. “I thought our defense really helped. We got a couple of steals and we pushed it.”

Kerry had a big second quarter as she scored nine of her game-high 18 points to help Kaneland outscore L-P 24-7 in the period.

Kerry hit a jumper to start the second and scored off an inbounds play on Kaneland’s second possession of the quarter. She added another bucket with 5:16 left and followed with a 3-pointer to make it 25-10 with 4:43 left in the half.

“My teammates helped me a lot,” Kerry said. “There were a lot of good passes. We were moving the ball really well.”

With L-P holding Brown to six points in the first half with Phoebe Shetterly and Alexus Hines taking turns defending her, Lilly also stepped up for Kaneland.

She drained a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter and finished with 11 points. Brown knocked down a 3 in the third quarter and converted a three-point play with 5:10 left in the game, which started the running clock, to finish with 12 points.

“Kendra’s really good at setting screens and stuff when she’s getting pressured like that,” Kerry said. “So then the ball gets open for other girls and we have a lot of other good scorers we can rely on when Kendra is getting face guarded like that.”

Kaneland led 49-25 after three quarters and led by as many as 31 points in the fourth quarter.

L-P hung around in the first quarter as Brie Ruppert scored on the Cavaliers’ first two possessions to give L-P a 4-3 lead. Hines drove for a bucket with 1:03 left to pull L-P within 11-8, but Brown grabbed a rebound and scored a putback at the buzzer to give Kaneland a 13-8 lead after one.

“Initially, we played OK,” L-P coach Adam Spencer said. “We got a couple post touches. Brie Ruppert scored a couple buckets. But the pressure up top, the help side defense, the rotations were there and that’s a credit to how they’re teaching defense and how athletic the girls are out on the perimeter. That’s what we’ve struggled with all year.

“We just have to find a way to score. We have to handle the ball better and pass better.”

Kaneland improved to 13-6 overall and 5-1 in the conference. The Knights and Morris have one loss each in league play, while Ottawa and Sycamore both have two losses.

“It’s tight,” Claesson said about the conference race. “L-P is scrappy, so I was happy with the result tonight. We know it’s going to be a battle, especially away games. It seems a lot of teams are losing the away games. It’s always tough coming to any of these opponents. It’s a long bus ride. We came out ready to go so I’m proud of the team.”

Ruppert led L-P (9-10, 1-4) with eight points, while Shetterly, Kelsey Frederick and Maggie Boudreau each had four.