Kaneland pulls away from St. Francis
Getting into foul trouble early, Kaneland forward Blake Feiza spent most of the first half in the Knights' game against St. Francis Tuesday night on the bench, only scoring 2 points.
But the junior more than made up for it in the second half by scoring 18 points, including 12 straight in the fourth quarter, to lead Kaneland past St. Francis 70-58 at the Ken Peddy Windmill City Classic Tournament.
Kaneland led 28-22 at halftime.
St. Francis made its move in the third quarter, sinking three straight 3-pointers, to take a 31-30 lead two-and-a-half minutes into the period. Andrew Harvey, who led the Spartans' scoring with 21 points including a perfect 8 for 8 from the free throw line, canned two of them.
The lead seesawed for the rest of the quarter. A Michael Cacella layup late in the period put St. Francis (0-1) up 44-40.
Feiza scored with a buzzer-beating layup to trim the Spartans' lead to 44-42 to start of the fourth quarter.
Jake Hed began the scoring for Kaneland (2-0) in the final frame with a trey form the right wing that knotted the score at 45. Hed, who also scored 20 for the Knights, put his team ahead with a free throw at the 6:41 mark in the quarter, 46-45.
Feiza took over from there, dropping in 3 straight layups and connecting on 6 of 7 free throws. After sinking his last free throw of the quarter, Kaneland led 57-49.
"At halftime we felt like we just needed to come out and do what we did, but I think they made some nice adjustments and they really punished us for that. We didn't recognize it," said Kaneland coach Joe Conroy. "In the fourth quarter, we made a couple of adjustments and we were able to put Blake Feiza back in there who was in foul trouble early and sat most of the game and he really took care of business inside."
"Going into the fourth we knew it was going to be a battle because it was close at that time. We knew we had to do something at the point to get ahead," said Feiza. "We figured out that they couldn't guard us inside so we decided to capitalize on our inside game."
The Spartans dominated the boards in the first three quarters and outrebounded the Knights 26-17, but Kaneland attacked the glass more aggressively in the last quarter to limit St. Francis' scoring.
"I think we got more aggressive when we realized that the game was kind of slipping away from us," Conroy said. "We're small and if we are not the aggressor on the boards, it's going to be a long evening."
"I think we broke down offensively (in the fourth quarter). We were making rash decisions. I think in the third quarter we had 2 turnovers and 22 points," said St. Francis coach Erin Dwyer. "In the fourth quarter I don't know how many turnovers we had but we probably had more turnovers than points and we you have turnovers, that leads to easy baskets for your opponent."
Rhett Espe scored 8 points for the Knights.
John Detloff tallied 9 points for the Spartans while teammates Matthew Cooney and Tim Sullivan both notched 7.