Kaneland pays back Rochelle

Winning streaks have been hard to come by this season for Kaneland's girls basketball team.

However, the Knights (8-15, 3-9) capped a 2-0 week with an impressive 51-37 victory over Rochelle (7-14, 4-7) Thursday night in Maple Park.

While matching their longest winning streak of the season (2), the Knights also avenged a 14-point loss (51-37) suffered at the hands of the Hubs nearly two months ago (Dec. 4).

"The girls have been playing hard and I think our defense has been pretty solid and has been getting better throughout the season," said Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe.

After spotting Rochelle a 13-9 first-quarter lead, the Knights closed out the second quarter by scoring the last 5 points -- a pair of free throws from Mallory Huml and a 3-point play by Katie Hatch -- to grab a 27-22 halftime advantage.

The momentum carried over into the third quarter, as the Knights forced 7 turnovers and outscored Rochelle 16-6 while opening a 15-point cushion at 43-28.

"Defense was definitely the key," said Hatch, who scored a game-high 12 points with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. "We came in and played phenomenal defense on their key players."

Faced with a height disadvantage, the Knights paid particularly close attention to Rochelle's 6-foot-1 center Nicole Newton and 5-10 forward Lauryn McCulloch.

"Coming into the game, we wanted to make sure Newton and McCulloch didn't beat us," said Colombe. "Last time (we played), McCulloch hit us for 19 (points) and Newton had 13. And last year, Newton went off for 27 and 22 against us.

"I think we held her to single digits tonight."

Newton and McCulloch each finished with 9 points.

"Our philosophy was, 'Let's make somebody else beat us besides those two,' and our defense did the job," Colombe said.

The starting backcourt of Hankes and Rose recorded 11 of the Knights' 16 steals.

Offensively, the Knights spread the wealth, as Huml (11 points), Brianna Hurst (8), Sara Rose (80 and Brittney Hankes (6) supported Hatch.

"That was nice to see," Colombe said of the balanced scoring. "At the beginning of the season, we had balance but the balance was maybe 6-6-4.

"But everybody seems to be improving and we're stepping up a little bit at a time. Hopefully, we can continue this -- just sharing the basketball, hitting the open player and playing solid defense. That seems to be when we play our best."

Kelsey Kemper led Rochelle with 10 points.