Hassan finds a different way to power Kaneland past Ottawa
Freddy Hassan was looking for a different way to get the basketball.
With Ottawa focused on limiting the Kaneland 6-foot-6 junior's touches during Friday's Interstate 8 game, Hassan crashed the boards especially hard, securing a few and turning them into points during a 58-34 victory.
"Coach said to play aggressive," Hassan said. "It was kind of a struggle. Today the key was on stopping me so I couldn't do much, so I fought for rebounds to get the ball."
Hassan scored eight points and had nine rebounds, but his impact may have been even bigger on the defensive end.
"Hassan takes away a lot of easy looks in the paint and puts a lot of pressure on the perimeter," Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. "We did a lot of good things, but Hassan makes it difficult to get easy buckets. They're the defending conference champs with a number of guys returning, so we knew it was going to be a difficult task."
Ottawa (2-2, 0-1) finally broke a scoreless game with 5:36 left in the opening quarter.
Kaneland (4-1, 2-0) crawled out of the gate and pretty much forced coach Ernie Colombe to call a timeout after a Huston Hart (7 points) three-pointer put the Knights down 12-1 with 3:19 remaining in the first quarter.
The Knights finally settled down and tied the game at 17-17 on a pair of free throws from Evan Frieders (10 points) with 2:24 left in the opening half. They'd then begin to pull away a bit after a three-pointer from Troyer Carlson (10 points) followed by quick steals and layups from both Frieders and Carson to jump in front 26-19 with seven seconds left in the half. The Pirates had just led 19-17 at 1:24.
"We had a bad start, but defense brought us back," Carlson said. "Defense turns into offense. And when every person on the court is scoring that's nice to see. It's hard for the defense to guard all five guys on the court."
Hassan's steal and dunk in the opening 20 seconds of the second half was the kind of play that can lead to a home team blowing a team out. The Pirates wouldn't allow that to happen for the time being, getting a couple big baskets from Aric Threadwell (9 points).
It was a high arc three followed by a steal and a layup - and all done by sophomore Isaiah Gipson (7 points) - that buried the Pirates for good at 42-30 in the final minute of the third quarter.
Gipson matched Parker Violett with seven points. Violett connected on a three-pointer with 2:31 left in the first quarter to account for Kaneland's first field goal.
Three-pointers proved to be a big part of the Kaneland attack. The Knights knocked down seven threes with Carlson and junior Preston Popovich and Carlson each making a pair.
"Once we got some motion going and the crowd going, we took over from there," Popovich said. "We started looking for each other and starting to hit some shots and get stops on defense. Everyone was looking to help everyone out after the early deficit and we just came back as a team."
Cooper Knoll scored nine points for the Pirates.