Naperville North's size overcomes Kankakee's quickness

It was a classic matchup of size vs. quickness, and size won.

Naperville North outlasted Kankakee 46-40 on Wednesday night for its third straight victory at Waubonsie Valley's Warrior Christmas Classic.

The Huskies played five players at 6-foot-4 or bigger, including the 6-10 Matt Hasse, while Kankakee had only one as tall as 6-4. Still, after Naperville North took a 14-3 first-quarter lead, the Kays battled back to challenge the Huskies, tying the game at 24 in the third quarter.

"Going in we were obviously really concerned with their size, and their size helped them, but I thought we kind of neutralized their size throughout most of the game," Kankakee coach Ronnie Wilcox said.

"You know what? They're not big, but they're strong," added 6-6 Huskies junior Matt LaCosse. "(Alvin Braddock) is strong, (Terrell Brooks) is strong, and they can all jump. We didn't do a really good job of boxing them out today."

Rebounding was an issue for the Huskies because the shots weren't falling for them. They finished 15 of 40 from the floor, including 3 of 16 on 3-pointers over the Kankakee zone.

"It would have been nice if we could have hit a couple of outside jumpers," Huskies coach Jeff Powers said, "and a lot of turnovers keeps you even."

The Huskies (9-2) finally pulled away again down the stretch, thanks in part to its 2-3 zone.

"I decided to stop fooling myself that we can cover them, so we went into a 2-3 zone," Powers said with a laugh. "Put three big guys back there and said, shoot one time and get the rebound."

A Joe McNicholas lay-in with three minutes to go gave Naperville North a 41-38 lead. Jovonn Griffin added a couple of free throws and Hasse dropped a 15-foot jumper for a 45-38 lead before Kankakee (4-6) could get one last basket with just 14 seconds to go.

"We couldn't buy a basket, had a couple of defensive breakdowns," Wilcox said of the closing minutes.

LaCosse was the game's top scorer with 14 points off the bench, adding 6 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.

"Matt LaCosse did a good job for us, gave us some energy, got on the boards," Powers said.

The Huskies will play Plainfield Central at 7:30 p.m. Saturday for the tournament title, hoping to add that to their Hoops for Healing tournament win in November.

"It's our second championship (game) and it feels pretty good," LaCosse said. "It would be nice to get another one here."