Kaneland’s Amani Meeks has career night in Class 3A regional final win over Crystal Lake South

CRYSTAL LAKE – Kaneland sophomore Amani Meeks went into the Class 3A Crystal Lake South Regional final averaging about six points a game.

The 5-foot-5 guard blew past that number Friday with a career-high 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting to lead the top-seeded Knights to a 60-47 victory over No. 4 Crystal Lake South and their second consecutive regional title.

It’s the first back-to-back regional championships for Kaneland since 1989-1990.

“I don’t know, it’s shocking because I’m usually always in my head or I sometimes don’t play up to my potential,” said Meeks, who also hit her first two 3-pointers of the season.

“I just went all out, did it for my teammates and my coaches.”

The Knights (24-9), who move on to play No. 2 Dixon in a Rockford Boylan Sectional semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, were in need of a scoring boost as they struggled to contain South’s Laken LePage. The talented junior guard accounted for the last 10 points of the second quarter to tie the game at 25 at halftime. She finished with a game-high 27 points and three 3s.

“[LePage] was unbelievable,” Kaneland coach Brian Claesson said. “[South] came out and played extremely hard. We knew it was going to be a tough game and it was nice to see when things didn’t go our way, especially early, the girls responded. They’re a very resilient group.”

South took its first lead of the game on consecutive baskets from freshman wing Gaby Dzik and LePage at the start of the second half. Kaneland’s Kendra Brown, who earlier this year surpassed 1,500 career points, then started to get hot. She made a runner in the lane and quickly scored again after a steal to give the Knights a 31-29 lead with 4:20 left in the third quarter.

When South went up again, it was Brown who hit a 3 to take the lead, followed by another steal and score. Brown had seven of her 10 points in the third quarter, while Meeks scored seven in the first, two in the second, four in the third and seven in the fourth.

Claesson knew Meeks had the ability to put up big numbers.

“She does it all the time in practice,” Claesson said. “I think other teams think we’re just Kendra [Brown], but we showed today that we have a lot of talent.”

South took its final lead at 39-38 on a 16-foot jumper by LePage with 1:10 left in the third quarter. Junior guard Kyra Lilly (11 points) ended the third with a buzzer-beating 3 for the Knights to take a 43-39 lead.

LePage, who also had four steals, poured in 10 points in the second and nine in the third quarter to bring the Gators (17-15) all the way back from an 11-point deficit.

“All of a sudden, the energy was up,” LePage said. “One shot falls and everyone kind of picks themselves up. Every point we added on was more and more energy. We had hope and faith that we were going to stay in the game.

“My teammates encouraged me, and I felt like I had to step up because it’s all on the line. You’ve got to step up.”

Gators coach Mark Mucha said LePage, who missed her entire sophomore season with a torn ACL, showed how special of a player she is.

“Big players make big plays in special occasions, and that’s what you saw tonight,” Mucha said. “She’s such a humble person. She always gives credit to her teammates and she’s first person to take the blame. You can see her leadership that she has on the court and the fact that she can carry a team on her back. You witnessed it today.”

“It was the best months of my life to be able to compete again with the people I love,” LePage said. “It’s just so fun and thrilling to play again.”

Senior Sam Kerry chipped in 15 points for the Knights while South received eight points from Dzik and seven from Tessa Melhuish (11 rebounds). Senior guard Adi Schwab had two points and six rebounds in her final high school game.

Claesson said there were a lot of questions entering the year for a team that lost many talented seniors.

“We didn’t know how our team was going to look coming into the year,” said Claesson, whose Knights won their first conference crown in 20 years. “It’s unbelievable. It’s a credit to them. We had a lot of girls step up throughout the year.”

The Gators graduate three (Schwab, Kiara Avila, Josie Nielsen) from a team that had a 14-win improvement after a 3-25 record a year ago.

“They wanted to prove something, that they were better than that,” Mucha said. “The amount of growth that we had makes me extremely proud.”