Kaneland rolls over Aurora Christian
With his team shooting over 45 percent for the season on 2-point field goal attempts, Kaneland girls basketball coach Ernie Colombe stressed pushing the ball inside against Aurora Christian's zone defense.
The Knights followed his advice and dominated the interior and on second chance points to collect a 70-39 home nonconference victory Saturday night against an undermanned Eagles squad.
Kaneland senior center Bailey Crimmins racked up 13 points, 9 rebounds and 5 blocks, while junior guard Morgan Weber collected 9 points and 10 rebounds.
Eleven different players scored for the Knights (18-3), who connected on 25 of 47 two-point attempts and held a commanding 51-17 edge on the boards.
"It was different facing a zone, but we still went at it," Kaneland's Morgan Weber said. "We've been deadly in the two-point area, so coach wanted us to focus more on the two-pointers than three-pointers."
"We got some good shots early in the lane, but the second quarter we got away from it a little bit," Colombe said. "I thought the second half we executed much better."
Aurora Christian (12-12) limped into the game after Friday night's 66-55 Northeastern Athletic Conference loss to Harvest Christian.
Ashley Hochsprung and Emily Ward were out of the lineup while freshman Tori Henning played sparingly. Even Eagles' coach Burney Wilkie spent Friday night in the emergency room with kidney stones.
"We're the walking wounded right now and we're missing a bunch of key pieces, but I was pleased with our effort," Wilkie said.
Kaneland broke out to a 14-2 lead in the opening five minutes as Crimmins scored 6 points and Kylie Modaff added 4.
"We got off to a slow start, but they're a really good team and they were the reason for that. It wasn't that we were playing so poorly," Wilkie said.
The Eagles settled down and played even for the remainder of the half. Kirsten Madsen (13 points) and Sami Hultine (9 points) drained 3-pointers as they stayed within 27-15.
It was all Knights in the third quarter as they shot 12-for-14 from the field.
After missing all 10 three-point attempts in the first half, Modaff hit one and Jenni Weber drained three in a row to extend the lead to 51-37. Morgan Weber followed with a 3-point play to close out the impressive 27-point quarter.
"We got some threes in that third quarter, but we were looking inside first and that opened the outside," Colombe said.
Meg Cohrs chipped in 6 points and 8 rebounds off the bench for Kaneland while Camri Conley and Vanessa Gould tallied 6 points each.
Kaneland has a busy three game week ahead, including the rubber match with Northern Illinois Big 12 leader Yorkville at home on Friday. The Knights hope to avenge a 49-48 loss to the Foxes on January 15.
"Yorkville and Sycamore were definitely tough losses, but we just have to come back and finish strong for the end of the season," Morgan Weber said.
Aurora Christian has two more regular season games before entering as the No. 5 seed in the Class 2A Seneca regional.
"We've seen our fair share of good defense teams and that will only help us," Wilkie said. "It's a winnable regional with two games that I think will be competitive if we can get there."