advertisement

Kaneland takes home Plano championship

With New Year's Eve here, Kaneland's boys basketball team earned the right to party not just like it's 2010, not even to party like it's 1999 but the chance to party like it's all the way back to 1994.

A 47-39 win over Rockford Christian Wednesday night in the championship game of the 47th annual Plano Christmas tournament gave the Knights what coach Brian Johnson believed was the program's first title since they won this tournament in 1994.

Kaneland (9-2) erased an early 8-2 deficit, took the lead for good midway through the second quarter and then held off a late Royal Lions rally.

"Kaneland hasn't won anything in a long time, it's great to win something," Kaneland senior center Dave Dudzinski said. "We like winning championships, that's what we're here to do."

The Knights wouldn't have won the title without Dudzinski, who scored a career-high 32 points and grabbed 13 rebounds in a dominating individual effort that also earned him tournament MVP honors.

"It's nice a team played us man-to-man so he can show his skills even more," Johnson said. "He's such a versatile player. He's a quiet leader, he leads by his actions and he really put us on his shoulders tonight."

Rockford Christian (11-2) played man-to-man most of the night, something the Knights haven't seen much of lately. On Tuesday night Genoa-Kingston's box-and-one held Dudzinski to 4 field goal attempts, but the Holy Cross-bound Dudzinski had little trouble getting going Wednesday.

Dudzinski scored 16 points in both halves. He shot 6 of 9 from the field and hit all 4 from the line in the first half as the Knights opened up a 26-16 halftime lead.

"It was definitely refreshing to see a man-to-main defense," Dudzinski said. "But we are getting pretty good against the zone so hopefully we get to the point that other teams have to play us man."

It's a common basketball expression that shooting is contagious, but passing seemed to be too for the Knights, who assisted on 8 of their first 11 baskets to push their lead to as much as 30-16 early in the second half.

Those assists were spread out, with seven different players - Dudzinski, Ryley Bailey, Donovan Williams, Steve Colombe, Pat Fleming, Taylor Andrews and Tyler Callaghan - contributing at least one.

"We talk about trying to be patient," Johnson said. "It's key especially when we are struggling to get Dave the ball to make the defense work and then maybe relax and get some open looks and the boys took advantage of it."

Down 14 in the third quarter, the Royal Lions began sending help at Dudzinski. They were able to chip away at the lead the rest of the way, getting as close as 39-35 and 43-39 in the final two minutes.

Dudzinski again came up big, scoring the Knights final 8 points of the game - two coming on Andrews' long pass off an inbounds play when the Lions were pressing. Kaneland ran that same play to perfection earlier this year to seal a win over Glenbard South. Dudzinski also hit both ends of a 1-and-1 twice in the final 31.8 seconds.

"We have a lot of plays," Johnson said. "We work on things quite often. We may run a play one time or two times all year but the one time we run it is going to be important. That last play to get Dave the ball was huge. Taylor made a great pass, Ryley made a great screen and Dave finished strong."

Andrews was second to Dudzinski in scoring with 5 points. Bailey joined Dudzinski on the all-tournament team.

Brayden Teuscher and Jahil Smith, who led Rockford Christian with 13 and 12 points, respectively, also were on the all-tournament team.

"The disappointing part for us is we are normally a pretty darn strong defensive team and we didn't come out to play in the first half defensively," Rockford Christian coach Shane Bautch said. "That was obvious by the number of layups. You can't spot a team like Kaneland, a very solid team, 10 points."

Article Comments
Guidelines: Keep it civil and on topic; no profanity, vulgarity, slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. If a comment violates these standards or our terms of service, click the "flag" link in the lower-right corner of the comment box. To find our more, read our FAQ.