Yorkville cools down Kaneland

Kaneland dug itself too deep of a hole in Friday night's home Northern Illinois Big XII East contest against Yorkville.

The Knights mustered just five field goals and 16 first half points against a motivated Yorkville squad that was eager to avenge an earlier 63-61 defeat.

The Foxes enjoyed their largest lead of the game at 37-20 midway through the third quarter before Kaneland finally found an offense rhythm.

Sparked by 16 second half points from Ryan David and spirited play from guard Mark Lilly, the Knights whittled the lead down to single digits, but ultimately came up a short by a 61-53 margin.

Kaneland (7-9, 2-3) saw its modest two-game winning streak snapped.

"Too little, too late," said Kaneland coach Brian Johnson. "When we've lost games we've started slow and turned the ball over a lot. Today was kind of that formula."

Yorkville (10-7, 5-1) came out firing with a pair of 3-pointers and consecutive driving layups from John Bondurant for a 10-2 lead.

The Foxes extended their advantage to 22-7 behind a suffocating defense that forced nine Kaneland second quarter turnovers.

"Defensively is what it boils down to," said Yorkville coach Dan McGuire. "The first half of defense might be the best defensive half we've played this year."

"They did a good job early of keeping us out of our offense, really pressured us and made us uncomfortable, so that's really a testament to them," Johnson said.

David tried to put the Knights on his shoulders in the third quarter, tallying 13 of the team's 15 points. He drained a pair of 3-pointers and converted another conventional 3-point play to narrow the gap to 41-31.

"Ryan worked really hard to try and get us back in the game," Johnson said.

However, Dan Kaczmarek (13 points) answered with a key 3-pointer to close out the quarter for Yorkville. Bondurant, who shared game-high honors with 19 points, drained another trifecta from the top to push the lead back to 49-33.

"We would get a basket, but then we would get a turnover that would take away from what we were trying to do offensively, and we weren't stopping them on defense," Lilly said.

Lilly tallied 8 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter while center Jake Gomes added 6 of his 8 points down the stretch, but time ran out on the Knights.

"After every timeout we told our kids they were going to make a run. Coach Johnson has a lot of energy and his team does too," McGuire said.

While the Knights were disappointed with the outcome, they are anxiously awaiting the rubber match with the Foxes on Feb. 20.

"It was very frustrating. We worked so hard in practice but to come up short like this is tough. We get them again at their place, so we're looking to take it to them," Lilly said.

Girls basketball

Yorkville 43, Kaneland 34: The Lady Knights stayed within striking distance throughout, but were ultimately done in by 23 turnovers as they came up short against the Foxes in a home Northern Illinois Big XII East matchup.

Kaneland (11-4, 2-3) trailed just 30-27 after three quarters, but McKenzie Lee and Katie Nolan combined for 11 fourth quarter points to help Yorkville pull away late.

"We were out of sync the whole night," said Knights coach Ernie Colombe. "We had plenty of chances, but it came down to turnovers. We turned the ball over way to many times against a good team."

Morgan Weber and Bailey Crimmins tallied 9 points each for Kaneland while Jennifer Weber scored all 5 of her points in the fourth quarter.

Lee collected a game-high 13 points for the Foxes (15-2, 6-1) while Audrey Macciomei and Nolan finished with 10 and 9 points, respectively.

"They outplayed us in every phase tonight. They worked a little bit harder to get the ball inside and when they did they capitalized," Colombe said.