Kaneland can't take down WSC leader
If Kaneland could have turned its game Friday at DeKalb into a matchup of future Division I big men, the Knights would have come away with no worse than a draw - perhaps a narrow win that would have tightened the Western Sun Conference race.
But basketball, of course, is a team game. And while 6-foot-9 Holy Cross bound Dave Dudzinski certainly matched 6-10 Illinois State recruit Jordan Threloff, the Barbs' supporting cast made sure DeKalb remained on top of the conference standings.
Senior guard Dylan Donnelly hit three 3-pointers and made life miserable for the turnover-prone Knights, helping DeKalb pull away in the second half to a 50-38 victory.
Dudzinski's 16 points, 10 rebounds and 3 blocks were quite similar to Threloff's 15-13-3, with Dudzinski also adding three 3-pointers and shooting slightly better. Both had a couple of their blocks against the other - one on Dudzinski's dunk attempt in the second quarter.
"It's always nice to play against someone your own size especially going Division I as well," Threloff said. "I wasn't going to let him dunk here. I wasn't going to let it happen if I had to foul him or whatever."
The Barbs (15-6, 6-1) are a game ahead of Geneva and Batavia in the loss column of the Western Sun, with the red-hot Bulldogs (13-4, 6-2) getting a chance to even things up when they play at DeKalb Tuesday.
The Bulldogs will need to handle the ball much better than the Knights (11-6, 4-4), who watched their second-quarter lead slip away when they began having all kinds of turnover troubles.
DeKalb started the game in a 1-3-1 zone, which the Knights picked apart with jumpers by Dudzinski and Chaon Denlinger opening a 6-0 lead.
By the time Denlinger connected on a 3-pointer with five minutes left in the second quarter, the Knights led 18-13 and DeKalb coach Dave Rohlman switched to a pressure man.
That move couldn't have worked better. After committing 0 turnovers against the zone in the first quarter, Kaneland coughed it up 6 times in the second, 5 in the third and 9 in the fourth.
"When we went to man and put some pressure on their guards especially when they take it out of (point guard Ryley) Bailey's hands and give it to some of those other guys who aren't sure-handed, I thought we took advantage of that," Rohlman said.
Kaneland's only basket during a nine-minute stretch from the middle of the second to the middle of the third quarter came on Matt Spitzzeri's jumper.
The Barbs outscored the Knights 15-2 over that span to turn the 5-point deficit into a 28-20 lead with 4:35 left in the third quarter.
Kaneland coach Brian Johnson had to go to a makeshift lineup to close the second quarter. His sixth man before this week, Pat Fleming, is no longer on the team, and when Bailey picked up his second foul the Barbs capitalized on a different group of players on the court to lead 21-20 at halftime.
"We took them out of a zone, usually teams stay in one (against us)," Johnson said. "But we got a little flustered and had some turnovers.
"We're just trying to mix things up and trying to find some people to step up and fill different roles."
Dudzinski scored all 9 of Kaneland's points in the third quarter, but the Knights still trailed 37-29 after three.
Bailey stayed on the bench the entire fourth quarter and the Knights really struggled handling the ball without him. DeKalb extended its lead making 11 of 18 free throws, finishing 17 of 26 for the game to the Knights' 2-6.
Kaneland held the Barbs to 33 percent shooting from the field. But the Knights couldn't find enough offense to turn their good defense into a win, with Denlinger scoring 11 of his 13 points in the first half. Besides him and Dudzinski, nobody had more than 2 points.
"Our defense was pretty good the whole game," Johnson said. "We just have to keep working."