Kaneland picks up road win at Sandwich

Sandwich ran out of gas in the second half of Saturday night's Interstate Eight game against Kaneland, and then the Knights ran right past them, earning a 61-42 victory in Sandwich.

"The biggest thing we said is we can't let them run because they're good in the open floor," Indians coach Jim Braddish said. "When we turned it over, that's what happened, especially in the fourth quarter when they pulled away. We were turning it over or they were getting long rebounds and lofting it and running to finish with layups."

Sandwich (7-14, 2-7) committed 22 turnovers and the Knights turned them into 18 points, mostly uncontested layups.

"Those early, easy buckets kept us in it early," Knights coach Ernie Colombe said. "In the second half we were able to pull away a little bit."

Kaneland (10-9, 6-3) only led 27-26 at halftime, but began to pull away at the end of the third quarter, closing it on an 11-3 run to break a 36-36 tie.

"I thought we had the right plan and the kids mostly executed it for two-and-a-half quarters but then we started to run out of gas," Braddish said. "They built a little lead and we had to match up man when we got down and play team defense with good gaps and rotation, and I thought we were a little slow on that tonight. Part of that is a good team and part of it was we were a little flat."

The Knights were without the services of starting center Ethan Feiza, but that didn't seem to faze them while the Indians were coming off a hard-fought win against Somonauk the night before.

"I was happy with how our guys responded," Colombe said. "We got on the glass and we were active defensively. And actually in this matchup it probably helped us a little bit in some ways because we went smaller and some of our guards are 6-3 so that length really helped."

That defense locked down tight in the second half, holding the Indians to just 16 points, including a Kyle Theurer 3-pointer early in the fourth quarter.

"In the second half we really started being on the help line and being there for each other so we could get those steals," Kaneland's Porter Conroy said. "We were staying glued to our guys on the backside."

Theurer had a huge game for the Indians, pouring in 17 points.

"It was probably his best varsity game," Braddish said. "Tonight was the first time he was able to get in the lane consistently against a good defensive club. He was hitting from the outside and also getting inside, hitting some midrange and getting to the basket, and he hit a couple guys with some passes. I thought he had a great game."

Thanks to its ability to force turnovers and get out and run, Kaneland wasn't in its half-court offense as nearly as often as Sandwich would have liked.

"The best way to beat a zone is not let them set up at all," Kaneland senior Brett David said. "It was nice to make a couple open shots early and stretch them out a bit."

David led the Knights with 15 points, Jamari Meeks added 12 points and Conroy chipped in with 11 points.

"We got some easy buckets tonight which kind of helped us getting into the flow," Colombe said. "I'm really happy to come in here and get a win."

Rex Avery had 12 points for the Indians while Jacob Heilemeier was clutch off the bench with nine points.