Team effort lifts Kaneland
Drew David got the first crack at Streator star J.J. Cravatta. Thomas Williams and Marcel Neil took a few turns, and Dan Miller came off the bench to hound Cravatta wherever he went.
And if all that attention wasn't enough, when the game was on the line in the fourth quarter Kaneland coach Brian Johnson sent Matt Limbrunner to double team Cravatta and make any other Streator player beat them.
The Bulldogs couldn't do it. Cravatta, coming off a 32-point game against Burlington Central on Tuesday, led all scorers with 22 points, but the Knights countered with three players in double figures and clutch free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter for a 53-47 victory Wednesday in the quarterfinals of the 49th annual Plano Christmas Classic.
"He's an excellent player, holy smokes," Johnson said of the 6-foot-1 senior guard. "It takes fives guys to guard him. He works really, really hard. He's a tough kid and sees every kind of defense in the world."
No. 3 seed Kaneland (8-3), who won the 2009 Plano title before finishing sixth last year, will play No. 2 Yorkville at 7 p.m. Thursday in the semifinals after the Foxes stifled Ottawa 47-29.
The Knights opened the game with back-to-back steals for baskets by Neil and Williams. Cravatta heated up with a layup and a 3-pointer falling out of bounds with David draped all over him.
That was the first of six lead changes in a first quarter that ended with Kaneland up 17-14. Cravatta went to the bench for five minutes in the second quarter when he turned his ankle.
Kaneland capitalized and built a 30-20 halftime lead before Cravatta again rallied the Bulldogs (8-3) in the third quarter. His 17-foot jumper started a 5-0 run, and after he hit a pair of free throws he assisted Brock Armstrong on a 3 and made two more free throws to give Streator its last lead of the game at 36-35.
"We were face-guarding him, trying to fight through every screen," David said. "He's just a great all-around player. We were trying to keep fresh guys on him because we knew if we put a tired guy on him he'd score. Our goal was just to contain him."
David hit a long jumper to put Kaneland back up 37-36, and Tyler Heinle came up with a key play with Streator holding for the final shot of the third quarter by stripping a handoff to Cravatta and taking the ball the other way for a layup and 41-36 lead going to the fourth quarter.
"We found out that play this morning (at shootaround) and ran it a couple times," Heinle said. "Coach called it out and I knew it was coming. I just made a play on it. I knew the ball screen was coming and they were handing it off."
Kaneland outscored Streator 12-11 in the fourth quarter despite missing all 6 of its field goal attempts. After starting the game 10 of 20 at the free-throw line, the Knights made them when they mattered by sinking 11 of their final 12 including six straight by David who made an adjustment after struggling at the line early.
"Sometimes when I shoot I catch myself looking at the ball and if I keep my eyes on the front of the rim which is what I did at the end of the game I made some shots," David said.
Streator got as close a 51-47 with 25 seconds to go on Cravatta's step-back 3, but David hit 2 more free throws to finish the scoring.
David led Kaneland with 16 points, Neil added 12 and Heinle came off the bench with 11 points. It was the team's defensive effort holding Streator to 35.7 percent shooting from the field that impressed Cravatta the most.
"That's a good defensive team," Cravatta said. "They are physical, a lot of pushing, but that's a good team. They got after it. They were all over the loose balls. We knew coming out of halftime we needed to get those loose balls and get those offensive rebounds."
Kaneland dominated Streator on the glass 38-22 led by Neil's 9 rebounds, 7 from Heinle and 6 each by Trever Heinle and Limbrunner.
"Definitely a team effort defensively," Johnson said. "We got a little flustered in the third quarter but we guarded fairly well down the stretch."