Kaneland can't contain Threloff, DeKalb

The expected showdown never came to fruition.

In a boys basketball game pitting the two premier junior posts in the Western Sun Conference, it was all DeKalb and 6-foot-11, 250-pound center Jordan Threloff.

The Barbs' smothering zone defense reduced Kaneland center Dave Dudzinski to a spectator for much of the game, and Threloff scored 18 of his game-high 26 points after the intermission in leading his team to a 59-37 victory in DeKalb Friday night.

It was the Barbs' first win of the season (1-4, 1-0); Kaneland fell to 2-3, 0-2.

Dudzinski, the Knights' 6-9 center who leads the team in scoring, had only 3 shot attempts for the game in finishing with 6 points.

"We decided in practice to front (Dudzinski)," said Threloff, who matched Dudzinski with 10 rebounds. "I tried to use my entire girth on him as well. We just get pumped up for Kaneland."

The Knights were pumping too, but the squad suffered a miserable night from the field. Kaneland missed all nine of its first-half 3-point attempts and failed to reach double digits in either of the first two quarters in falling behind 24-13 at the intermission.

"You have to make open shots, which we didn't do all night," said Kaneland coach Dennis Hansen. "We couldn't throw it in the ocean. (Dudzinski) has to work harder to get open, and we have to do a better job of getting him the ball."

For the game Kaneland shot 27 percent (14-for-51), and the Knights' perimeter-based attack produced a mere seven trips to the free-throw line.

But the Knights were revived by Ryley Bailey in the third quarter; the junior guard hit two of his three 3-pointers to help Kaneland reduce its deficit to five on two occasions in the third quarter.

But Threloff was not about to be denied. In one telling sequence late in the third quarter, the Barbs' big man grabbed offensive rebounds off his own misses three consecutive times, only to finish his second 3-point play of the quarter to stake DeKalb to a 41-26 lead after three quarters.

"He's so big and hard to defend," Hansen said.

The Knights' Christian Dillon and Brody Root scored 19 seconds apart early in the third quarter to give Kaneland hope, but Threloff later scored 8 consecutive points to give DeKalb a commanding 52-30 lead with 3:44 to play.

"We're still trying to learn how to win," DeKalb coach Dave Rohman said. "I thought the defense was the difference."

Bailey was the Knights' leading scorer with 9 points.

• In the girls preliminary, DeKalb junior guard Brittany Johnson picked up a loose ball in traffic and scored with 10 seconds remaining to give the Barbs a 37-36 victory.

Briana Hurst led Kaneland (1-6, 0-2) with 10 points.