Downers South shuts down Kaneland

What's harder to believe? That Kaneland could go nearly two full quarters — 14 minutes, 29 seconds to be exact — without a single point against Downers Grove South Thursday in the third place game at the Oswego East Winter Classic?

Or that the Knights could have a drought like that and still be four points down with four minutes left in the game?

Kaneland's offensive nightmare finally became too much to overcome when the Knights went through one more drought over those final four minutes. Downers Grove South ended the game on a 12-2 run for a 36-22 victory.

“We were out of sync,” Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said. “They were physical and we wanted some more calls and instead of playing through it we let it get in our heads a little bit. I give them credit, they played great defense but that (22 points) should never have happened on offense.”

Kaneland (8-9) actually started the game on fire, taking a 9-0 lead with 2:29 left in the first quarter. Andie Strang opened the game with a 3-pointer against the Mustangs' traditional zone look.

“It was a nice start, we looked like we were ready to play,” Colombe said.

But once Downers Grove South (11-4) switched to a man-to-man down 9-0, Kaneland literally could not score.

The Knights didn't score again the rest of the first quarter, didn't score a point in the second quarter, and didn't score for the first four minutes of the third quarter until Emily Ott drove for a 3-point play.

By that time Downers Grove South had scored 20 straight points and led 20-12.

“We don't often play man, we stick to zone,” said the Mustangs' all-tournament selection, senior guard Carly Saraceno.

“We took a risk, we did a good job, we held them and I'm proud of us. They weren't expecting it. We don't practice man a lot, we always do zones. I was surprised how well we did.”

Once Ott ended the Mustangs' 20-0 run, Kaneland chipped away at the lead. Kelly Evers scored Kaneland's next six points, and Ott again drove for a bucket slicing the Mustangs' lead to 24-20 with four minutes left.

Saraceno answered with a driving basket of her own, Christyl Thurman converted a 3-point play and Sarah Ludwig hit a shot to quickly put Downers South back in control, 31-20.

Kristen Zemke's 8 points led the Mustangs, who won despite shooting 36 percent from the field and 41 percent at the line. They also missed their first 9 free throws Wednesday in their only loss of the tournament to West Chicago.

“We would have liked first or second but this is the first year we have gotten anything,” Saraceno said. “We did pretty good.”

Kaneland could say the same thing about its first two days in the tournament when it scored 59 against South Elgin and 64 against Addison Trail to reach the winner's bracket for the first time.

But the Knights didn't combine for that many points in their next two games, just 52 points in 64 minutes against West Chicago and Downers Grove South.

“I'm disappointed today because I think if we were more patient on offense we had a shot to leave here 3-1. We didn't do that,” Colombe said.

“They switched to man and the wheels fell off the bus. We missed some shots and made some silly mistakes and it just seemed to snowball. On top of that they went to the free-throw line 26 times and we went to the line twice and it doesn't help either.”

Only four players scored for Kaneland. Evers led with 8.

“We just stopped working as a team,” Evers said. “We kind of broke down. I don't know what else happened.”