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Sycamore tips Kaneland in OT, ties for conference lead

In a season that has been almost perfect for the Kaneland girls basketball team, Sycamore is proving to be the one thorn in their side.

After a clutch last-second basket by Jamie Martens sent Tuesday's Northern Illinois Big XII East battle to overtime, the Spartans blanked the Knights 11-0 in the extra four minutes for a 49-38 victory.

The win not only snapped Kaneland's 12-game winning streak, it moved Sycamore (19-4, 8-2) into a tie for the conference lead. The Spartans, Knights and Yorkville all have 2 conference loss, and Kaneland (19-3, 7-2) plays at Yorkville Thursday night.

Two of Kaneland's 3 losses this year have been to the Spartans. Once again, Sycamore went to a box-and-1 on Kaneland's leading scorer Jenny Weber, and the move worked as the Knights shot just 24.5 percent from the field (14 for 57).

"That was our game plan both times we played them this year," said Spartans coach Adam Wickness, whose team also defeated Kaneland 45-42 on Dec. 8. "We did not want to let Jenny Weber catch and shoot because she's really, really, really good at that."

Weber led Kaneland with 13 points. Ten of them came in the second quarter as she scored Kaneland's final 10 points of the first half to turn a 15-11 deficit into a 21-19 halftime lead.

The Knights scored the first 5 points of the third quarter on Hannah Armin's 3 and Martens grabbing a defensive rebound and taking it the other way for a layup. That made it 26-19, Kaneland's biggest lead of the game.

On a night with 13 ties or lead changes, Kaneland's 7-point cushion didn't last long. Jacki Rapp, who led Sycamore with 14 points, drove for a basket to start an 11-2 run to close the third quarter, putting the Spartans up 30-28.

Kaneland freshman Kelsey Modaff sank a corner 3 with 6 minutes left, and Weber got a rare open look for a 3-pointer that gave Kaneland its final lead, 34-33 with 4:40 remaining.

Kate Majerus quickly answered with a 3-pointer to put the Spartans ahead 36-34, and the Knights spent the final four minutes trying to catch up only to finally do it with 2 seconds remaining.

Down 38-36, it didn't look good for the Knights when they turned the ball over with 10 seconds left. But the Spartans missed their second straight 1-and-1, and Martens snared the rebound and raced the other way to sink the game-tying shot on a strong move into the lane.

Kaneland didn't have any timeouts left when Martens made the heads-up play.

"I just knew when I got the rebound there wasn't much time left and I had to go," Martens said.

Unfortunately for Kaneland, it couldn't carry the momentum into overtime. Kylie Feuerbach scored inside on the first possession, Majerous followed with a basket and the Spartans did the rest of their damage at the free-throw line while Kaneland missed all 5 of its shots.

"In overtime they attacked the basket and we were settling for jumpers," Knights coach Ernie Colombe said.

Martens played another excellent all-around game for Kaneland with 12 points, 11 rebounds, 5 steals and 3 assists before fouling out in overtime. Amber Peeler grabbed 10 rebounds.

"Just a heady play by her," Colombe said of Martens' tying basket. "She's a very smart player and took it strong to the hoop and we had a second life."

Kaneland held Feuerbach, who scored 20 points in the first matchup, to 11 points on 5-of-17 shooting. Sophomore Keely Noel guarded her most of the game.

"Noel played Kylie pretty tough today. She's a tough matchup. That's a good game defensively," Colombe said.

"We feel we've done a pretty good job of limiting other teams top scorers. Other teams are going to do that to us. That's when your third, fourth and fifth options have to step up and hit shots. Obviously we're disappointed but our kids will bounce back."

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