Boys basketball: Gipson gives Kaneland early energy off bench, sparks win over St. Charles North

Kaneland senior Isaiah Gipson energizes the Knights from the bench and off it.

Gipson keyed an early run as the Knights ran past St. Charles North, 77-45, during Wednesday’s nonconference game in Maple Park.

“It’s just really energy,” Gipson said. “I really try to go out there and give my coach my all, show I play defense, will guard anybody on the court and play my role. Take the open shots that I’m given and really go out there and attack. I love to attack and give the ball to my shooters and also like to create for myself. I go out there and play (with) energy. I just want to play defense and attack the basket and hit an open shot when I take it.”

Before the tip, Gipson was already vibrant, firing up his teammates.

“We always try to find our own energy like at the beginning of the game,” Gipson said. “I don’t know if anybody notices, but I try to create our own energy because we’re 16-0 and aren’t playing that big of a team that will give us a run for it, so I try to always give us energy at the beginning of the game as much as possible, and play our best instead of having lazy days because of the team that we’re playing.”

Gipson knocked down a three to open the second quarter, got a putback on a missed free throw from Marshawn Cocroft and completed a 16-0 run as he turned a baseline drive into a three-point play with 5:05 left in the second quarter for a 26-9 lead.

St. Charles North (7-12) had led 7-2 with 3:11 left in the first quarter.

“That’s a good team right there,” North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. “I couldn’t tell you a weakness if you asked me. I couldn’t find one, not tonight, but we also made them better. I was looking for our competitive spirit, a little bit of a competitive spirit to show up more tonight. It was a great opportunity to come out on the road and play one of the better teams in the state.”

Gipson provided energy, the North Stars lacked it.

“Our energy level was not where it’s at,” Poulin said. “As far as we’re concerned, we have to be worried about what we’re searching for - consistency - and it begins with our energy. If you just watch some of our games and see what we’re doing in the zone as far as an intensity level and our activity and talking, you’ll notice a difference. Tonight in the first quarter you knew it was trouble just from our energy.”

Kaneland (17-0) scored 17 of 21 second-chance points in the first half.

“One of the keys of the game is to search for a boxout in the zone,” Poulin said. “When a shot goes up, you need to go hit a white jersey, and we did a lot of watching, you know, we did a lot of watching and they did a lot of crashing and getting extra points and you can’t do this against this team. You got to keep them half court and to one shot.”

Gipson and Cocroft had five second-chance points apiece.

“We knew that since they’re in that full court 1-2-2 and drop back, when a shot goes up there’s going to be some gaps and holes in that defense,” Cocroft said. “We always have four going to the rim and one back just in case they got the board. We knew that crashing the glass was an important part of the game.”

Cocroft led the Knights with 24 points.

“We were a little bit stagnant early just because they got off to a 7-2 lead and we moved (Cocroft) in the middle of our zone a little bit there and I think that created some matchup problems,” Knights coach Ernie Colombe said. “With his quickness he can get to the rim and then puts a lot of pressure on the defense and then you got a 6-9 guy (Jeffrey Hassan) you have to collapse on and Marshawn in the middle and a couple guys that can shoot it on the outside. I think that just opened us up.”

Euniel Mondesir led the North Stars with eight points, but the Knights held Jacob Love and Besnik Memedoski to eight points combined.

“Really really proud of the effort,” Colombe said. “That’s a good team. They got some good scorers, No. 24 (Besnik Memedoski) is a really good player, (Jacob) Love is a really good shooter. So we were really happy with how we played overall tonight.”

Hassan had a thunderous two-hand jam to make it 49-26 midway through the third quarter. Northern Iowa men’s basketball assistant coach Gameli Ahelegbe was among those who was watching.

“It’s been great, I’m really blessed, I just give all glory to God,” Hassan said. “I mean, it means a lot, not everybody gets to be recruited. I just have to keep working hard and staying humble.”

Hassan scored eight points and grabbed 13 rebounds.

“They were collapsing heavy,” he said. “In the first half I wasn’t passing the ball as much as I should have. The second half I just had to realize that my teammates were open and I just had to take it to them and I knew there would be offensive boards because they were in the zone.”