Kaneland living up to No. 1 seed at Plano

See that target on Kaneland's back? The Knights like it there.

After years of going into conference battles as the smaller school against the likes of Batavia and Geneva, the Knights are getting a taste of being the big boy this week at the 47th annual Plano Christmas Classic Tournament.

Kaneland has lived up to its No. 1 seed so far, turning to Ryley Bailey for 11 straight points in the fourth quarter Tuesday night to break free from a tie game and beat Genoa-Kingston 58-47.

The Knights (8-2), who will play Rockford Christian for the championship at 8 p.m. tonight, are finding the smaller schools can make up for their size with scrappy play.

"It's a little different coming out here," Bailey said. "The school size is a little smaller but the competition like in this game is very good. Playing in the Western Sun prepares us for everything else because the competition is so good in every sport."

Genoa-Kingston (9-2) came out with a game plan to take Kaneland center Dave Dudzinski out of the game, and the Cogs' box-and-one diamond zone could not have worked better. The Holy Cross recruit managed just 1 shot attempt in the first half and 0 points. The Cogs scored the final 7 points of the first half to tie the game 20-20 at halftime.

"We wanted to pinch him down low with the guy under the hoop and the guy face-guarding him," said Genoa coach Corey Jenkins, whose team had never played the defense and first worked on it Tuesday afternoon. "I think it was pretty successful. I think we did a solid job as a team."

Genoa senior Scott Suchy, an AAU teammate of Dudzinski, swished a 3-pointer to start the second half. Bailey answered a couple moments later with a 3-point play, putting the Knights back ahead, 25-24.

Kaneland never trailed from there, thanks in large point to its senior point guard Bailey. Another Suchy 3-pointer - he had four of them and a game-high 22 points - tied the game one last time at 38 early in the fourth quarter.

After baskets by Chaon Denlinger and Dudzinski gave the Knights a 42-38 lead, Bailey grabbed a long rebound and raced the length of the court for a layup.

That was the start of 11 straight points by Bailey, coming in a variety of ways. A spinning shot here, a hard drive to the basket there and a long 3-pointer that made it a 53-42 game and effectively put the Cogs away.

"He's got it in him," Dudzinski said. "He's very capable of doing that. He's got to do that more often. He had tremendous confidence. Sometimes we weren't sure what kind of shot he was taking it but it went in so kudos to him. It was amazing, he took over."

Genoa, whose only other loss came to Byron, scouted Bailey earlier in the tournament when he combined to make 4 of 12 shots. Tuesday was a much different story as Bailey finished with 21 points and 6 rebounds.

"We were going to make other guys beat us and Bailey beat us," Jenkins said. "He hit some tough shots. The other night we thought he struggled with his shooting, tonight he didn't, he stepped up and delivered for them."

Bailey credited his teammates for his offensive outburst, first Dudzinski for the attention he draws, then the others for getting him open.

"They were just trying to take Dave away a lot so I was just looking for my shot," Bailey said. "They were giving me the drive so that was what I was doing. My teammates did a good job of getting me the ball and setting me up with screens."

Dudzinski finished with a double-double, 11 points and 10 rebounds despite only taking 4 shots from the field. Tyler Callaghan came off the bench to hit all 4 of his shots in the first half and added 9 points.

"He (Callaghan) really kept us in the game early," Kaneland coach Brian Johnson said. "He knocked down an open jumper, he made a post move. He's one of those quite kids who's a big body but if we didn't have him the first or second quarter we'd have struggled."

Like Bailey, Johnson likes being a bigger school for a change.

"We're not at that Batavia, Geneva, DeKalb level yet where we can just go to those bigger tournaments and compete every single game," Johnson said. "We have to put out a lot of energy to stay competitive and I like how the boys have responded to it."

Now the Knights are one win away from doing something they have previously accomplished twice: win the Plano title. Kaneland won this tournament in 1988 and 1994.

"It's been awhile for Kaneland since we've played in a championship," Bailey said. "We're really excited. We're not jumping up and down right now but we're excited to be in it."