Crown Point vs. Kankakee Valley

Crown Point 48, Kankakee Valley 39
    
Click HERE for some great photos from the game.

After jumping out to a 17-9 lead after the first quarter behind some balanced scoring from Alex Webster (6), Carissa Triplett (4), Nikki Borys (4) and Sarah Zondor (3), the Bulldogs seemed to hit a wall. That wall was the KV defense and some unforced CP turnovers, which gave the Kougars an opening that they quickly jumped on. A bucket by KV junior Stacy Spurgeon, followed up by a trey from Lesley Cunningham, got the Kougars within 3 with 6:00 minutes to go in the half. Both teams went into a scoring stalemate for the next two minutes until CP senior Amanda Bernard broke into the scoring column with a well-played bucket. Both teams traded baskets over the last few minutes to show a 26-18 CP lead on the scoreboard at the break.

KV came out ready to play in the third and quickly scored off of a trey by Spurgeon less than a minute in, closing the gap to 5. A 6-5 KV scoring run got the Kougars within 3, but junior Alex Webster canned a trey off of a Carissa Triplett kickout and then Webster followed with a feed through traffic to senior La'Kea Harvey for an easy bucket behind the KV post defense to open up the lead to 9 points. The Bulldogs traded buckets with KV in the last 30 seconds of the third to go into the last quarter 38-29, Crown Point.

The final quarter was long and drawn out as the Kougars sent the Bulldogs to the line 9 times in the quarter. The only field goal for the Bulldogs was from senior Nikki Borys, who had a nice putback in traffic. Senior Sarah Zondor (who saw limited minutes throughout the game due to a virus) made the most of her freebie opportunities, scoring 5 of her 9 points in the last 1:30 of the game to put CP up by 12 with :38 to go. KV kept coming at the Bulldogs in the last 30 seconds of the game, scoring 5 points before sending Webster to the line for a one-and-one and the last two points of the 48-39 win for CP.

Give plenty of credit to the Kougars, who only have one senior on their roster. They were patient on defense and made the most of their scoring opportunities, especially in the second half when it seemed they could not miss a shot. Although much is made of their tall frontcourt, they were a perimeter team tonight, scoring all but 6-8 points from the outside. They will be a tough team to beat in 3A for the next year and a half and should come out of their sectional in February.

Game high honors went to CP's Webster, who finished with 15, including two treys, followed by Borys with 12.  Zondor had a solid game despite her illness, scoring 9 points to go with 4 rebounds and 4 steals.  Scoring leader for KV was junior Megan Parker with 12, followed by Spurgeon with 9.
      

Scoring by Quarters:
CP	17	9	12	10	48
Low	9	9	11	10	39

Unofficial scoring:

CP - Webster 15 (4r 3a 2s), Borys 12 (4r 1b), Zondor 9 (4r 4s), Triplett 7 (2r 4a 1b), Bernard 2 (2r), Harvey 2, Heneghan 2

KV - Parker 12, Spurgeon 9, Cunningham 6, Wright 5, Kikkert 5, Boss 2