Boys basketball: Hassan’s last- second basket sends Kaneland to state
Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe and his players were well aware of how dangerous Morton guard Alex McKie could be after he put up 27 points in a sectional semifinal against La Salle-Peru.
After seeing what he could do against an Interstate 8 Conference foe, the Knights locked in on him. He didn’t score and had trouble contributing in other areas as Kaneland topped the Potters 49-47 on Monday in the Class 3A NIU supersectional in DeKalb, punching its ticket to state.
“That just shows how good we are defensively,” Kaneland forward Evan Frieders said. “We can have different guys guarding him and shut him down and hold a really good basketball player to zero points.”
The Knights (35-0) will open the tournament against Deerfield at 10 a.m. Friday. The loser of the game will face the loser of Leo-East St. Louis at 7 p.m. Friday for third place, with the winners playing for the title at 4 p.m. Saturday.
The Knights won the game on a layup by Jeffrey Hassan with 2.8 seconds left. A desperation 3 by the Potters failed and Kaneland escaped with the win.
McKie shot 0-for-8 from the floor and 0-for-4 from 3-point range. Against the Cavaliers, he was 7-for-11 from long range. And even though the Potters (30-5) had a 47-23 rebounding edge, McKie only grabbed two.
The Knights primarily used Frieders and Marshawn Cocroft on McKie.
“If we gave him any space he can shoot the ball,” Cocroft said. “So our main focus was face guarding him.”
The win continues a strong defensive showing for the Knights in the postseason. They haven’t given up more than 52 points in a game, and they didn’t give up more than 44 in the sectional round.
They held Crystal Lake South to 41 points two days after the Gators put up 92 on Sycamore- and that was a Spartans team coming off one of its best defensive performances of the year the game before.
The defense proved big after the Knights spotted the Potters the first 10 points of the game, which ended up being the biggest lead of the game for either team. Kaneland’s biggest lead was eight, last achieved on a dunk by Hassan with 5:51 left in the third quarter. The Potters were back in the lead before the third quarter was over.
“We were 34-0 coming in for a reason, because of how hard they worked,” Colombe said. “We just had to weather that storm and fight back. We weren’t going to lose the game 10-0.”
Kaneland took a 45-43 lead on a pair of free throws by Frieders, who scored 11 in the game. He had seven of the first 10 points for the Knights when the team was struggling to score early.
“When they have to double Marshawn, double Jeff in the post, it allows other guys to get open,” Frieders said. “I started to get a little bit of space, get to the basket and do what I could.”
McKie’s biggest contribution came late in the game. His second steal of the game led to a bucket for Collin Burns that tied the game at 47 with 17.5 remaining.
Kaneland called a timeout with 5.4 left, drew a play for Hassan to get the ball, and got the ball to him for the layup and trip to state.
Hassan finished with 17 points, nine rebounds and six blocks. Cocroft had 16 points, three assists and two steals. Frieders had five assists.
Owen Adams led Morton with 14 points, adding seven rebounds. Burns had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Brendan Petty added seven points and nine rebounds.
Kaneland hasn’t placed at the state tournament since it took second in Class A in 1973.
“It’s crazy,” Frieders said. “I played up when I was a freshman and I feel like our team just got better and better every year. And then my senior year we all get to go to state. It’s surreal.”