Hassan helps Kaneland dominate glass vs. Sycamore
Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said rebounding is more about the proper mindset than height. His 6-foot-6 forward agrees with the sentiment.
Freddy Hassan grabbed 13 rebounds as the Knights dominated the boards, and after they took the lead late in the first quarter they never looked back in a 68-43 win over Sycamore in an Interstate 8 Conference battle.
“You just have to go for everything, do everything to help the team win,” said Hassan, who also had 22 points in the victory. “I think that’s what every player on this team is thinking. When we play like that, we get rebounds like that, it helps us get the edge on teams.”
Sycamore (8-9 overall, 3-2 Interstate 8) led by five in the first quarter, but the Knights (14-3, 4-1) ended the first on a 14-4 run, with Hassan scoring 11 in the first.
Kaneland needed just 2 minutes at the end of the half to turn an eight-point game into a 37-21 lead at the break, a lead that grew to 51-24 late in the third.
Sycamore coach Ethan Franklin said his team just stopped making shots after the first quarter. He said the looks were there later in the game but the Spartans weren’t converting.
“I thought our guys competed and did a good job,” Franklin said. “Unfortunately, we just didn’t make shots and that led to some opportunities for them and they capitalized.”
Colombe said the Knights took a minute to adjust to the Spartans’ smaller, quicker lineup but started playing better defense. That led to more opportunities on the offensive end.
“We just needed to realize that we needed to play hard, lock in, do everything better,” Hassan said. “We talked about what we needed to do better then we started to do things better. We just need to realize we’re the better team.”
Kaneland finished with a 44-22 edge on the boards and 17-8 on offensive rebounds. They outscored the Spartans 18-4 on second-chance points.
Franklin said the Spartans’ issues on the boards weren’t exclusively about height.
“It’s something we’ve had a big focus on in practice and film and it’s something they have to get better at,” Franklin said. “We had a couple opportunities where we didn’t grab the loose ball and we had everything boxed out. There’s some you can contribute to height but not everything is like that. We’ve got to do a better job of competing on the glass if we want to achieve the goals we want.”
Ben Larry led the Spartans with 12 points and Carter York added 11, all in the first half. Michael Chami, a 6-5 forward, came off the bench and had a team-best five rebounds. No one else had more than two.
For Kaneland, Troyer Carlson had 16 points and six rebounds. Isaiah Gibson had 12 points off the bench, including a couple steals that helped spark Kaneland’s second quarter run.
In addition to Carlson’s six boards, the Knights’ other two starting guards also hit the boards hard, with Evan Frieders grabbing eight and Brad Franck grabbing six.
“We talk rebounding a lot and it’s a mindset, it’s not really a size thing,” Colombe said. “You got to want to go get the ball and you want to play physical. We’ve been working on that. We’re not always great at that but we are getting better and our guards are starting to rebound better, and that’s nice to see.”