Dudzinski, Kaneland knock off Hampshire
When Hampshire and Kaneland faced each other in the semifinals of the Leland Strombom Holiday Tournament in late November, Dave Dudzinski gave the Knights the lead in the final minute with a roaring dunk. Hampshire rallied, though, and went on to win 54-49 in overtime.
When the teams reunited on Saturday in Maple Park, Dudzinski once again slammed one home in the final minute, this one putting the exclamation point on a 50-35 nonconference boys basketball victory for the Knights.
"It was good to win a game against a team that beat us early on in the season," Kaneland coach Brian Johnson said. "They're a team that I think is very good and has a good chance of winning their conference. It was good for our guys to respond to a tough loss on Friday night."
Hampshire (11-6) troubled the Knights with its zone defense, which had a lot to do with a low-scoring first half that resulted in the teams heading into halftime deadlocked at 18-18.
The Knights took a 3-point lead into the final quarter before extending their lead and forcing the Whip-Purs to retreat from their zone and into a man-to-man defense.
"We can't make an inbounds pass on a sideline and a kid steals it and now we're down 5," Hampshire coach Bob Barnett said. "Then we come down, had a nice look, missed it and they come down and make a shot and we're down 7. All of a sudden we've got to get out of the zone and that's what absolutely destroyed us."
Kaneland (12-6) broke out of its offensive doldrums against the man-to-man defense by connecting on a few shots and working the ball inside to Dudzinski.
"We got David the ball and he was able to finish," Johnson said. "I thought Ryley (Bailey) did an excellent job of threading passes through the zone to set our guys up. He played an excellent game tonight."
Dudzinski scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter.
"We did a great job on Dudzinski in the first half," Barnett said. "I think he had (14 points) in the second half and most of it was coming out of that man-to-man. It's frustrating. I don't think they're 15 points better than us, but today they were."
The Knights limited the Whip-Purs to just 11 field goals and Tyler Watzlawick (15 points), Justin Bieber (11 points) and Shyler Ralphs (9 points) didn't receive any help from their teammates in the scoring column.
"When you only have three kids score in a game, somebody has to step up and start doing something," Barnett said. "You can't rely on three guys for an entire offense."
Steve Colombe contributed 11 points and Chaon Denlinger chipped in with 8 points for the Knights.
"Coming out I was surprised with our energy for a Saturday game," Dudzinski said. "We knew that after this we only have one more home game the rest of the year so once we got into the gym we tried to cherish it."
The Knights won't get a break from each other on Sunday. They'll be volunteering at a Special Olympics basketball tournament at the Vaughn Center in Aurora.