Boys basketball: Kaneland outlasts La Salle-Peru in overtime

LA SALLE – The Kaneland boys basketball team trailed at halftime and after three quarters in an Interstate 8 Conference game Tuesday at La Salle-Peru.

However, the Knights grabbed the lead early in the fourth quarter and led until the final minute only to see the Cavaliers force overtime.

In the extra session, Kaneland scored off the tip, then locked down defensively to pull out a 58-52 victory to stay undefeated in conference.

“It’s tough to get road wins,” Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said. “I’m proud of our guys. We battled. We were behind by three [at halftime]. We made some mistakes that we’ll clean up.

“L-P has a good team, a senior-led team. We have a mix of young and a couple seniors. I thought we took some strides tonight winning on the road in overtime.”

L-P coach John Senica was pleased with his team’s effort as well as the Cavs overcoming a five-point deficit with 3:06 left in regulation.

“I’m happy with the way we played,” Senica said. “Kaneland’s a very good team. They’re big. They’re quick. They can shoot the ball. So I was very happy with how we handled the game.

“The only thing I’m not happy with is we missed 12 bunnies. That’s 24 points. You add that to the game, there’s no overtime. But kudos to Kaneland. They’re a great ballclub. Our kids fought very hard. They gave everything they had. I’m proud of them.”

In overtime, the Knights won the tip and pushed it up the court for a basket by Parker Violett. Kaneland went up four when the Knights grabbed a long rebound and pushed upcourt again, this time for a dunk by Freddy Hassan with 1:55 left.

From there, the Knights made 3 of 6 free throws, while the Cavs managed just one point in the extra four minutes.

“We just continued to battle,”Colombe said. “We were not giving them easy looks. I thought defensively we were much better down the stretch. Our defense kind of got us going.

“They weren’t getting as many open looks. They were having to really move the ball around and were struggling to get open a little bit there. We were forcing them out a little bit. They did hit some tough shots. They hit the boards well tonight. They got some second-chance points early. I thought we cleaned that up a little bit down the stretch. Still some improvement to do, but they’re a good team. (Josh) Senica’s tough inside, and they have some really good shooters.”

The game was close throughout.

It was tied at 11 with 3:10 left in the first quarter before the Knights closed on an 8-3 lead to take a 19-14 advantage after eight minutes. The Cavs flipped the script and closed the second half on an 11-1 run to take a 28-25 halftime lead.

L-P led 41-39 at the end of the third quarter before Troyer Carlson stepped up for the Knights early in the fourth. Carlson hitter a runner to tie it at 41 on Kaneland’s first possession then pushed a rebound up the floor for a layup for a 43-41 lead.

The Knights held the lead — with the help of three baskets by Hassan — until Senica drained a deep 3-pointer with 27 seconds left. Carlson missed a 3 on Kaneland’s final possession to send the game to OT.

“I told the kids you have to dig deep,” John Senica said. “I told them we need to make a stop, make a bucket, make a stop, make a bucket, and somebody’s going to have to take a shot at the end of the game, and Josh ended up hitting that 3. That was a big shot for us.”

Carlson finished with a game-high 23 points for Kaneland (7-1, 3-0 I8), while Hassan scored 22 points.

For L-P (8-3, 0-2), Josh Senica scored 21 points, while Seth Adams contributed 14.

“This is a good building block for us,” John Senica said. “I see us getting better. I really like the way we’re progressing, because they’re starting to pick up the offense, they’re starting to pick things up we’ve been talking about, and I saw it tonight against a really good team.”