Spartans once again push away KHS

SYCAMORE - Kaneland High School's bus driver might have sat wondering why it took so long for his passengers to come out of Sycamore High School after Friday night's basketball game. Following Sycamore's 74-58 shellacking of Kaneland, the Knights' first-year coach Brian Rea gave another one of his prolonged team speeches. This time, the postgame talk lasted nearly 25 minutes, covering the gruesome details of the Spartans' dominating display against the Knights. "We got tired," said Rea. "We started to stand around a little bit for the first time (this year), we saw a little fear in our eyes and that made a difference." No doubt, the Knights probably had some fear in their eyes when Rea started reading some of the statistics from Sycamore's second victory over KHS this season. Four Sycamore players finished in double figures, as Marko Kostic led the contingent with 18 points. Andrew Gones tossed in 17 points, Anthony Bomar scored 14 points and Trent Schairer tallied 10. The Spartans benefited from some matador-style defense by the Knights. In the fourth quarter, Sycamore sliced through the Knights for a stunning 10-of-13 shooting effort in front of a near-capacity crowd on Senior Night. "That's the second game in a row we shot that well," said SHS coach Brett Goff. "I don't know why, but it just started clicking. We've been working hard and we've worked on setting screens and doing the basics." At 6-foot-1 with a slim build, Kostic might not be the ideal inside player, but the Knights made the senior look more like Shaq. Kostic, whose dad performed an impromptu handstand at halftime, scored 11 points during the fourth. Four times he had a chance for an old-fashioned three-point play. "Our strategy was to spread the court and have the guards penetrate," Kostic said. "The guards did a good job of getting us the ball inside." Sycamore scored 42 points in the second half, 25 arriving in the fourth quarter. To make matters even more painful, the Knights attempted just 20 shots in the final 16 minutes (8-of-20). "Depth-wise, I thought we had a lot more than Kaneland," Goff said. "I thought we could wear them down. We told our players at the start of the fourth quarter to break them down and wear them down. We wanted to pound it inside." Even more alarming, the Suburban Prairie Conference North Division contest looked like another classic battle between the two area teams. The last two meetings between the teams weren't decided until the final seconds. The game was tied six times in the second quarter, as the Knights recovered from an early nine-point deficit. The Knights' comeback was aided by some hot-shooting, in particularly by Dan Marr, who finished with a game-high 26 points. The senior guard made three straight threes and scored 11 consecutive points in the first quarter. Marr ends the regular season with 80 points over his last three games. Kaneland made 5-of-6 three-point attempts in the first quarter, and held Sycamore to three second-quarter field goals to enter the locker room tied at 32-32. Kostic's basket and free throw gave the Spartans a four-point advantage (41-37) early in the third, but Marr tied the game with four straight free throws with 2:45 remaining in the quarter. That's when the Spartans turned up the heat while the Knights wilted. Two seconds later, Bomar's three ripped through the nets to mark the start of a torrid shooting exhibition by Sycamore. By the time the destruction was complete, the Spartans made 13-of-19 shots in the final 10:45 of the game, leading by 20 points following a whip pass by Bomar to a streaking Kostic for a lay-in with 2:01 left in regulation. The Knights topped the Spartans in the long-range department - nine three-pointers to six - but the play of Kostic and Schairer was a big difference. Kaneland's main inside player, Eric Snyder, could only manage nine points. He scored 30 points earlier this season against the Spartans. On Friday, Snyder was besieged by two and three Spartans everytime he got the ball inside. "Trent and Marko played really strong for us and he (Snyder) was a marked man," Goff said. "He had a bulls-eye on his chest. We were tracking where he was at all times today." Kaneland concludes the regular season with records of 9-17 and 1-9. The Knights head to the Aurora West High School Regional to play Illinois Math and Science Academy on Monday. Sycamore (21-4, 7-3) earned second place in the SPC North, two games behind Yorkville High School. The Spartans get a chance to avenge a regular season loss to DeKalb High School. The two rivals square off Wednesday in the Belvidere High School Regional. Goff said Friday night's win was a good tune-up. "The atmosphere was good tonight and we had a lot of people here on senior night," he said. "We just have to match that intensity and play hard or we'll go home early."