Fedderly's free throws lift Kaneland
By the time Kaneland's boys basketball team finally got to take the court against Ottawa, the school's girls coach Ernie Colombe joked this would be the Knights' first West Coast tip of the season.
There was plenty of truth to that, the 8:45 p.m. start after Colombe's girls game that proceeded it went four overtimes.
The boys played their own down-to-the-wire affair, the team who was leading changing at the end of first, second and third quarters.
If it was up to Ottawa coach Mark Cooper, this one would have gone to overtime just like the girls did. Instead officials called a foul on the Pirates with just .1 seconds to go in a 51-51 game. Connor Fedderly went to the line and hit both free throws for a 53-51 Kaneland win.
"I'm a senior so that's what my team wants me to do," Fedderly said. "We shoot free throws every day in practice and I'm not scared now. I'm a senior and I want to win."
Cooper was quite upset after the call. Much of Cooper's frustration stemmed from the possession just before. Holding for the last shot, the Pirates got the ball to Issac Gassman who drove down the lane and missed under heavy pressure, no whistle coming.
The Knights (11-10) rebounded and called timeout with 3 seconds left. They inbounded to Fedderly who drove down the lane and had his shot blocked while getting fouled.
"We ran the play to perfection," Fedderly said. "We got a foul and won the game."
After taking a 17-12 lead after the first quarter, Kaneland went cold in the second making just three shots to trail 30-23 at halftime.
Ryan David heated up in the third with a quick jumper, the start of an 11-point quarter that put the Knights up 43-41 going to the fourth.
David also came up with some key shots in a final quarter that had ties at 43, 45, 47, 49 and 51. David nailed a baseline jumper to even the game at 47, and Jacob Gomes followed his own miss to put the Knights ahead briefly at 49-47.
After the four overtimes in the girls game, this finish was setting up for another OT after David tied the game with 34 seconds to go on an off-balance bucket down low.
But Fedderly had other ideas.
"That's a really good team," Federly said. "They haven't lost yet in our conference so we had a lot of respect for them. We were ready to play."
David led Kaneland with 19 points, Fedderly scored 10 and Dylan Vaca 9.
Gassman scored a game-high 20 points for the 15-7 Pirates.