Helm, Heinle help Kaneland rebound
Kaneland's boys basketball spent much of Wednesday evening searching for some consistency at either end of the floor.
When they found it, the Knights put together stretches of dominant play that led to a 62-45 win over Spring Valley Hall in the Plano Christmas Tournament.
“When we're playing well, things seem to click, but when we hit those valleys, we have real down times,” Kaneland coach Brian Johnson said. “It would be nice not to get too high or too low. It's something we have to keep working on.”
Led by Daniel Helm and Trever Heinle, each of whom scored 18 points, the Knights bounced back from a heartbreaking, 1-point loss to Princeton a day earlier.
But it took a while for Kaneland to get rolling.
“We weren't pleased with the way we started,” Heinle said. “It didn't seem like we were playing much outside D, and that's something we have to start doing.”
After Spring Valley Hall's Anthony Urbanski (14 points) staked the Red Devils to a 4-0 lead, Helm went to work, and the Knights scored the next 9.
“I wanted to do as much as I could until they began to stop me,” Helm said.
Having led the Knights to a 20-15 lead after one quarter, Helm continued to disrupt the Red Devils' offense in the second, turning steals into scores and dominating the inside.
“That was pretty much my teammates setting it up with the full court trap, so that I could get the steals and the scores,” Helm said.
With Kaneland leading 33-25 at the half, thanks in large part to Helm's 11 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 steals, it was time for another Knight to step up and take charge.
Though he'd had a relatively quiet first half, Heinle hit the floor like a man on a mission in the third quarter, scoring 10 points, as the Knights began to blow it open.
“Coach told us that we needed to come out with more defensive intensity, and that's what we did,” Heinle said. “On offense, we just wanted to push the ball and work it around. I came out with confidence, saw the open shot, and I took it.”
Johnson had to make some adjustments when Helm got into foul trouble, but as the Kaneland coach rolled his players into and out of the lineup, he kept getting strong contributions from the bulk of his roster. Tyler Callaghan, Chaon Denlinger, Matt Spitzerri and Zach Ringhouse all turned in quality minutes for the Knights.
“Guys like Callaghan and Spitzerri and several others really helped us grind out this win,” Johnson said. “Their play has really improved our team.”
Kaneland's opponents didn't have that kind of depth, and by the middle of the third quarter the Red Devils looked like they had run out of gas.
Despite holding a comfortable, 49-33, lead after three quarters, the Knights (8-3) did not let up in the fourth, and finished with a strong effort down the stretch. They will play eighth-seed Sandwich for fifth place at 5:30 p.m. Thursday.
“We could have played better defense, but we definitely put it all together in the fourth quarter and widened the margin,” Helm said.