Boys basketball: Kaneland caps 30-0 regular season by dominating La Salle-Peru

The La Salle-Peru and Kaneland boys basketball teams were both banged up entering Friday’s regular season finale in La Salle.

The Cavaliers were without starters Marion Persich and Jameson Hill due to injury, while the Knights were missing star center Jeffrey Hassan.

The short-handed teams played a close first quarter with L-P holding a two-point lead before Kaneland started to take control in the second and pulled away in the third on the way to a dominating 76-44 Interstate 8 Conference victory.

“I think the entire team played well,” Kaneland senior Marshawn Cocroft said. “We had Jeffrey out, but we knew we still had to come out and play hard. We were playing with guys in our starting lineup that we haven’t had before. Our chemistry is there. Five guards is different, but we figured it out. We just kept attacking. On defense, we switched everything and just pressured them and we found a way to win by double digits.”

With the win, the Knights finished the regular season 30-0, including 10-0 in the conference.

“It feels really good,” Cocroft said. “It hasn’t been done at our school. It’s a very good accomplishment for us. We’re celebrating it right now and once the playoffs begin, we’re going to shift our focus to the playoffs.”

It’s the second 30-win season in school history after the Knights went 32-2 and won a sectional title last season.

“We’ve never talked about it once,” Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said about going 30-0. “We talk all the time about going 1-0, going 1-0. (An undefeated regular season) is something we’ll look back on and hopefully have a lot of memories, but it’s really not about the records, it’s about the journey along the way with the guys and the relationships. Hopefully we have a few more weeks of basketball.”

The Cavaliers took an early lead Friday with buckets by Regam Doerr, Erick Sotelo and Braylin Bond for a 6-2 advantage.

Gavin Stokes scored L-P’s final seven points of the quarter to give the Cavs a 13-11 lead after eight minutes.

“I think the first quarter we played OK,” L-P coach John Senica said. “I thought we moved the ball around on offense. I thought we played decent defense. We were rebounding. I think we played scared the rest of the game.”

The Knights scored the first 11 points of the second quarter and led 33-21 at halftime.

“For us it starts on defense,” Colombe said. “If we get stops and we can get out in transition, that’s where we’re at our best. We got the ball moving, some guys started hitting some shots. Once that happened, the game’s a little bit easier. Then they have to come out, your closeouts are a little bit longer. They have to get out to shooters and that opens up driving lanes. It’s good to see a lot of guys step up tonight and have good games.”

Cocroft and the Knights dominated the third quarter, outscoring the Cavs 27-14. Cocroft scored 15 points himself in the quarter as Kaneland’s lead ballooned to as many as 29 points. The Knights led 60-33 going to the fourth quarter.

“I feel like we pushed the ball more, we attacked more and we found the gaps,” Cocroft said. “On the defensive side, we were just up in their grill, not giving them space, pressuring them and making them turn the ball over. We turned the turnovers into points for us.”

Cocroft scored a game-high 26 points, while Frieders had 12 points and Isaiah Gibson and Connor Kimme added nine points each.

The Knights are the No. 1 seed in their sub-sectional and open the postseason in the Class 3A Burlington Central Regional on Tuesday against the winner of Monday’s game between No. 8 Prairie Ridge and No. 9 IMSA.

“Our subsectional is probably one of the toughest in the state,” Colombe said. “We’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing, take things one game at a time and try to get a win on Tuesday.”

Stokes led the Cavaliers (18-10, 6-4) with 12 points, while Sotelo added seven.

L-P opens the postseason at home in the Class 3A La Salle-Peru Regional. The Cavs, who are looking for a third straight regional title, are a No. 2 seed and play No. 7 Dixon in a semifinal Wednesday.

“We have to go back to the drawing board,” Senica said. “With the team we have right now, we’re going to have to put different kids in different positions and we’re going to have to work on different things to prepare for Dixon.”