Wrap: Kaneland, ACC, St. Francis earn victories

It looked bleak for the Kaneland boys basketball team late in the third quarter.

"I thought we were dead and buried there for a while," Kaneland coach Dennis Hansen later said.

But Dave Dudzinski and Nick Wagner had other plans in mind for the Foxes Friday night in Yorkville in Western Sun Conference play.

The two not only spearheaded a dramatic fourth-quarter rally for the Knights to force overtime but were also the only two Kaneland players to score in the extra session.

Dudzinski followed a Wagner miss with 1:04 remaining in the extra session to give Kaneland the lead for good. The Knights' 53-52 win was later sealed by Wagner at the free-throw line.

The two had matching 19-point performances to lead all scorers.

"We just have a good feel for each other," said Dudzinski, the Knights' 6-foot-9 post who registered 4 blocks to augment 7 rebounds. "We just started playing more as a team (during the comeback)."

Yorkville (2-6, 0-2) shook off a sluggish offensive start and with four players eventually reaching double figures, the Foxes turned their 34-17 halftime lead into a 41-26 spread with 23 seconds remaining in the third.

Kaneland sophomore Steve Colombe beat the third-quarter buzzer with his second 3-pointer of the frame, and it proved to be a catalyst for the Knights entering the fourth.

Wagner had consecutive 3-point possessions early in the fourth, and Dudzinski duplicated his 8-point fourth-quarter performance to engineer the come-from-behind Knights' win.

The Knights (3-4, 2-2) hit 16 consecutive free throws to start the game, and the two main weapons for Kaneland both played the last 10-plus minutes of the game with four fouls apiece.

"It affects how aggressive you can be," Dudzinski said of the foul problems.

With Kaneland trailing 48-45, Dudzinski scored the final 3 points of regulation from the free-throw line to force the extra session. Yorkville had a chance to win in the waning seconds, but Jordan Rollins' left-wing shot fell short.

The extra period was a tactical battle in which extended possessions were the primary dynamic. The teams traded split trips at the line for a final tie at 51-51, which Dudzinski broke with his critical putback. "The big kid (Dudzinski) hurt us in the middle," Yorkville coach Jerry Farber said. "We just tightened up (offensively in the fourth quarter and overtime) and made bad decisions."

Rollins and Chris Weaver led Yorkville with 13 points each.

Aurora Central 75, St. Edward 61: After Josh Dix drained his third 3-pointer in the first two minutes of the game Friday night, the St. Edward student section shouted, "He's all day, he's all day!" The crowd was so loud, it sounded as if it chanted, "he's all-state!"

Thanks to the junior guard's 3-point parade, the Green Wave took a quick 9-1 lead. But, what some didn't know was that there may have been an all-state player on the court already, and Aurora Central Catholic's Mark Adams proved why.

Adams went on his own personal tear, scoring 34 points, including five 3-pointers and grabbing 9 rebounds, keeping the Chargers undefeated with a 75-61 win in a Suburban Catholic Conference boys basketball game in Elgin.

"He just goes. He's an all-stater. I really believe that. He's an all-stater, and that's what all-staters do," said Chargers coach Nate Drye.

It looked early on that Dix was just going to hit every shot he took, as the Green Wave (4-1, 0-1) jumped out to a 13-6 lead. After witnessing Dix's 3-point performance, Adams went on his own binge. He canned three 3-pointers the first half, and singled-handedly took over the second quarter, as he pumped in 15 points, including 10 consecutive points that led to a 4-point lead for the Chargers (7-0, 1-0) with a little over 4 minutes left in the first half.

After the Chargers went into the half leading 33-29, Adams came out where he left off, hitting two 3-pointers and scoring 10 more points in the third quarter to give his team a 55-44 lead after three quarters.

"He was tough to guard. We started out man-to-man, and he started getting to the basket real easy. So we switched to a zone to slow him down, and he started knocking down some 3s," said Green Wave Keith Chuipek.

And if it wasn't enough, Adams' last basket, an alley-oop dunk off a feed from his brother Mike, put the nail in St. Edward's coffin.

"I felt we were struggling to get the ball in the hole. We were struggling with the pressure he fans were giving us. So I had to step up," said Adams.

Nick Czaja added 17 points and 6 rebounds for the Chargers.

Dix and Steve Martin each had 19 points to lead St. Edward. Brett Manning added 14 for the Green Wave.

-- Steven Nichols

St. Francis 60, Montini 53:ŒSomething had to give.

After playing more than 31 minutes with the biggest lead by either team being 4 points, St. Francis' boys basketball team finally pulled away from stubborn Montini in the closing seconds to secure a 60-53 Suburban Catholic Conference victory Friday night in Wheaton.

Senior forward Brian McMahon, who poured in a game-high 21 points, made 4 consecutive free throws over the final 38 seconds of play to seal the Spartans' second SCC win in four days.

St. Francis is 4-1, 2-0 in SCC play.

"We grinded it out until the end," said McMahon, who also pulled down 12 rebounds to go with 4 assists and 4 steals. "Our shots weren't dropping as much as usual, but we stuck together and we pulled it out tonight."

With the Broncos (2-4, 0-1) clinging to a 45-42 lead early in the fourth quarter, the Spartans enjoyed a 7-0 surge, taking the lead for good at 47-45 on a putback by Bob Vonderhaar with 5:41 remaining. Vonderhaar finished with 18 points.

"That was the one thing we talked about at halftime -- we had no offensive rebounds," said Spartans coach Shawn Healy. "I just challenged the kids and told them that I thought it was going to be a difference maker (in the second half)."

After making a steal under his own basket, McMahon drove the length of the court to help set up Vonderhaar's layup that increased the Spartans' lead to 49-45.

"I was definitely looking for him a lot," McMahon said of Vonderhaar, who scored 8 fourth-quarter points.

"Brian is an unselfish player who makes everybody better," Healy said. "He had 21 points, he probably led us in rebounds and very well (could have) led us in assists. When you have that type of player on your team, it's going to make everybody better."

Dan McCoy, who canned a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter, added 10 points for the Spartans.

"I felt like for 80 to 85 percent of the game, we played really good defense," said Montini coach Tom Sloan. "But we lost (McCoy) and he hit a couple big shots in the first quarter."

Alex Blashewski scored 20 points and Anthony Blashewski added 13 for the Broncos, who led 16-13 after one quarter and 43-42 heading into the final period before coming up short.

"I think it was their seniors, especially in the fourth quarter, that made the biggest difference," Sloan said.

-- Craig Brueske