Kaneland beats Glenbard South in 'slugfest'

This one even had the players befuddled.

It took the Kaneland and Glenbard South offenses until the second half to get going Friday night in Glen Ellyn, and when they did the Knights pulled away late for a 41-36 Western Sun Conference victory.

"It was a slugfest," Dudzinski said. "Me and the other big guy at some point in the second quarter just looked at each other like, somebody's got to start scoring. Nobody really did. It was 14-12 at halftime. It was unbelievable."

The numbers tell the story.

Kaneland (10-5, 4-3) committed 13 first-half turnovers and shot just 7 of 19 in the first 16 minutes. Glenbard South's shooting was worse, 6 of 28.

"Unfortunately, we struggled from the field in the first half," Glenbard South coach Wade Hardtke said. "It didn't seem like we could buy a bucket. We had that one stretch in the second half where things fell a little bit for us, but even then we struggled from the free-throw line and we've been pretty solid there as well."

Dudzinski had a lot to do with that the Raiders shooting problems from the field. The 6-foot-9 Holy Cross recruit blocked 7 shots and made sure the Raiders got few second chances to score, grabbing 13 rebounds.

"I thought we played our best defensive game of the year tonight," Dudzinski said. "We played really well on defense."

"I'm very pround of how the kids played, especially on the defensive end," added Kaneland coach Brian Johnson.

Hardtke also appreciated the defense.

"I was pleased defensively with our effort," Hardtke said. "We've been working on trying to increase the intensity defensively, and I thought we did that. Especially in the first half I thought we did a nice job."

Kaneland led much of the game, but Glenbard South (7-9, 4-4) took a brief lead at 32-30 on a Jessie Larabee basket with 4:19 to play. Down the stretch the Knights made sure to get the ball into Dudzinski's hands, and he didn't disappoint. He scored 9 points the rest of the way, 7 of them at the free-throw line. He finished 8 of 9 at the line.

Plenty of practice at his father's urging resulted in his strong free-throw shooting, Dudzinski said.

"I'm pretty comfortable getting to the line," he said.

"He's our catalyst," Johnson added. "The kids know to get him the ball, and he tends to make things happen. We did a good job of getting him the ball in position to score."

Dudzinski led all scorers with 20 points. Trace Wanless led Glenbard South with 15 points and 7 rebounds, and Mike Rovansek added 11 points.