Kaneland takes the title at Ottawa
OTTAWA - Kaneland gained the upper hand in what promises to be an engaging season-long battle with Northern Illinois Big 12 East rival Yorkville.
The two teams battled evenly through three and a half quarters before the Knights tallied the final 9 points of the game to secure a hard-fought 42-33 victory Wednesday in the championship game of the Ottawa Christmas Classic girls basketball tournament.
Morgan Weber scored her only basket of the contest on a feed from Bailey Crimmins to give Kaneland (11-1) a 35-33 lead with 2:28 remaining.
Vanessa Gould hit 3-of-4 free throws while tournament MVP Camri Conley and Jenni Weber both hit a pair in the final 1:08 to seal the Knights' first Ottawa tournament title after placing third last year.
"That's a very good team - they're one of our rivals and we know how they play," said Conley, who collected a game-high 12 points and 5 rebounds. "We just knew we had to rebound and get stops on defense."
"We took care of the ball down the stretch. We ran some plays and made some free throws and I'm just really proud of our kids," said Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe.
Yorkville (11-2) had been carving up opponents from the outside, but the Knights' stifling defense limited the Foxes to just 2-of-16 shooting from 3-point range.
"They did a great job defensively. We only made two threes and we have to extend it from the outside," said Yorkville coach Luke Engelhardt. "We could never really establish our tempo."
Yorkville also aided the Knights by missing all 9 second half free throws.
"You can't do that, but we'll learn from it," Engelhardt said.
Both teams came out tight, but Kaneland took a 15-8 lead midway through the second quarter as Conley drove for back-to-back hoops and Jenni Weber hit a long 3-pointer.
Yorkville tallied the next 7 points, capped by Audrey Macciomei's 4-point play, but another Weber trifecta put Kaneland up 18-17 at the half.
Jamie Martens and Weber hit consecutive 3s as the Knights moved in front 29-23 late in the third. Yorkville responded with a 10-4 run to tie the score at 33-33 with 4:44 left.
Jenni Weber collected 11 points and 6 rebounds, hitting 3-of-5 three-point attempts.
"I started out this tournament shaky, but everyone had faith in me and I shook it off. It felt great to shoot the way I did," Weber said.
Gould added 7 points while Morgan Weber grabbed 8 rebounds. Katie Nolan and Lauren Duffenberg had 7 points each to lead the Foxes.
"We're really happy about playing some real good teams here," Colombe said. "Lincoln-Way West and Yorkville both came in with only one loss, so those are nice wins for us going into the new year."