{"id":104899,"date":"2025-12-30T13:27:46","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T13:27:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/104899\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T13:27:46","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T13:27:46","slug":"kanelands-14-0-run-in-second-half-keys-semifinal-win-over-la-salle-peru-in-plano-christmas-classic-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/104899\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaneland\u2019s 14-0 run in second half keys semifinal win over La Salle-Peru in Plano Christmas Classic \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a contest that was back-and-forth throughout the opening 22 minutes, the Kaneland<\/a> boys basketball team exploded on a game-changing 14-0 run to end the third and start the fourth quarters of Monday\u2019s semifinal contest at the 62nd Plano Christmas Classic against La Salle-Peru<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The top-seeded Knights (12-0), sparked by a trio of 3-pointers by senior guard Connor Kimme and senior point guard Marshawn Cocroft netting 22 of his game-high 35 points in the second half, advanced to Tuesday\u2019s 8 p.m. championship game against Yorkville Christian with a 67-50 triumph over the No. 4-seeded Cavaliers (8-3).<\/p>\n

La Salle-Peru will play Plano at 6:30 p.m. in the third-place game.<\/p>\n

Kaneland trailed 13-12 after the opening quarter, 32-27 at halftime and 43-40 with just over two minutes remaining in the third.<\/p>\n

\u201cLa Salle-Peru is a very good team. We won by 17, but the game was a lot closer than that,\u201d Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said. \u201cI was very happy with how we came out and played in the second half. The first half, I mean L-P was 8-2 coming in, and they have some good players that made plays and shots. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to try different things to try and stop them, and we were finally able to to that a few times there at the end of the third quarter. We held them to one shot during that run and turned a couple turnovers into points on the offensive end.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"La<\/p>\n

Plano Christmas Classic Basketball: Kaneland at LaSalle Peru La Salle-Peru’s Erick Sotelo (5) drives to the basket during the Plano Christmas Classic semifinals Monday, Dec 29, 2025, in Plano. (Gary E Duncan Sr. for Shaw Local)<\/p>\n

Consecutive triples by Kimme in the early stages of the third kept the score tight before a pair of free throws by Cocroft started the Kaneland burst. Cocroft added a pair of nifty drives to close out the third and hit two free tosses to begin the fourth before Kimme connected from the left corner to give the Knights a 54-43 advantage. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe went into the locker room down, but we were all very motivated,\u201d said Kimme, who finished with 11 points, all in the final two periods. \u201cWe not only wanted to get back into a third championship game here, but we also want to win our third in a row. I feel we all knew we could play better in the second half, and we did.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Colombe talked at halftime about winning every four-minute segment, nothing more. I just feel like our defense really picked up, we started working the ball inside, and that led to good shots. We just did a good job of creating for each other, and everyone stepped up when they were counted on. We just executed better in the second half, especially during that run.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConnor has always been a good shooter for us, and we have all the confidence in the world when he puts a shot up,\u201d Colombe said. \u201cHe had a couple of keys 3s for in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cocroft, who was 12-of-21 shooting including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, also had six rebounds and three assists. The Knights also received 11 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks from 6-foot-9 junior Jeffrey Hassan and 10 points and seven rebounds from senior Isaiah Gipson.<\/p>\n

Kaneland hit 25-of-53 (47%) shots from the floor, including 7-of-24 from the arc, and held a 35-25 rebounding margin. <\/p>\n

La Salle-Peru was led by sophomore Marion Persich\u2019s 19-point, 10-rebound, three-steal performance, while senior Erick Sotelo added 17 points, including four treys, and four rebounds. Jameson Hill chipped in nine points and three rebounds.<\/p>\n

The Cavaliers – which had meshed 61% of their shots in the opening two games of the tournament, made 21-of-59 (36%) against the Knights.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaneland is a very good team. I can\u2019t fault my guys\u2019 effort tonight, they gave it everything they had,\u201d La Salle-Peru coach John Senica said. \u201cI feel like with about two minutes to go in the third quarter, we were out of gas. We just didn\u2019t have the energy to get out on their 3-point shooters, and Cocroft was able to get into the lane and either score or kick it out, which hurt us as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe were right in the game up until that stretch (at the end of the third and start of the fourth) where we couldn\u2019t score. They\u2019d hit a 3, then we\u2019d miss a shot or turn the ball over. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t take even one possession off defensively against (Kaneland), and we eventually just wore down.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kaneland's<\/p>\n

Plano Christmas Classic Basketball: Kaneland at LaSalle Peru Kaneland’s Jeffrey Hassan (34) drives baseline during their Plano Christmas Classic semifinal game against La Salle-Peru. (Gary E Duncan Sr. for Shaw Local)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a contest that was back-and-forth throughout the opening 22 minutes, the Kaneland boys basketball team exploded on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[35359,160,162,161],"class_list":["post-104899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-illinois-high-school-boys-basketball","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}