Losses leave Kaneland 4th at Marengo

After playing 2 games in about 7 hours, you can't blame the Kaneland boys basketball team on how they were feeling after the last game of the E.C. Nichols Holiday tournament in Marengo.

"I'm tired," sophomore Dave Dudzinski said with a smile.

"You are really sore from the first game and it takes a while to get warmed up," Kaneland sophomore Ryley Bailey added.

After a 2-0 tournament start, Knights began Saturday by losing to Westminster Christian, 57-48, which landed them in the third-place game against Sycamore.

The Spartans, however, won that game, 60-46, which resulted in a fourth-place finish for Kaneland.

This was Kaneland's first year in the 16-team tournament. The Knights cap 2007 with a 6-8 record.

"It was good for us," Kaneland coach Dennis Hansen said. "We did OK. We should have done a little better."

"We won our first games, so we thought we were in a good spot (to win the tournament)," Dudzinski added.

Against Sycamore, a fellow Western Sun Conference team that beat Kaneland handily earlier in the year, the Knights never led. They were able to the game at 40 on a Nick Wagner 3-pointer with 1:51 left in the third quarter after being down as much as 12 in the first half.

Kaneland scored the first 5 points of the fourth quarter and got as close as 46-44 after Bailey's conventional 3-point play with 6:41 left to play. After that, however, Sycamore proceeded to go on a 14-2 run.

"It was a game of streaks," Dudzinski said. "When we came back, they came back."

Kaneland's final basket of the contest was Dudzinki's basket at the 4:20 mark. The Spartans scored the next 10 points to end the game.

"It was a little disappointing," Hansen said. "We stopped making shots. We'll keep working at it. We just have to be more consistent."

"We didn't execute. We didn't run the plays," Bailey added. "We were going too fast and our defensive pressure wasn't that great."

Dudzinski led the way with his 16 points and 8 rebounds. Wagner finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds, and Bailey added 9 points.

In the loss against Westminster Christian earlier in the day, Bailey was the one who led the Knights with his 15-point performance -- all on 3-pointers.

At the break, Kaneland found itself trailing 23-19, but never found its rhythm.

"In that first game, we didn't show up very well," Hansen said. "We just never got in synch. It's like we were dragging our feet all morning. Defensively, we were standing around and settled for the outside shot way too much."

Kaneland finished with 10 treys that game and just 6 baskets from the field.

"We came out slow and didn't get the ball inside," Bailey said.

Westminster Christian used free throws to ice the game, going 7-for-10 from the line in the fourth quarter. Joel Benson led the way with his 22 points.

Winnebago ended up winning the tournament for the fifth consecutive win after beating Westminster, 53-44.