First Half of the 1999-2000 Season Summary

Kaneland 61 Westmont 40

The lady Knights got off to good start winning their first game of the year, beating the Westmont sentinels 55-41. But it didn't start out like it ended as the game was tied at 15 a piece early in the second quarter. But the Lady Knights offense started flowing as they ran off the next 12 points for a 27-15 lead, a lead they held at half time, 32-21.

At the start of the second half the Lady Knights begun to look even more polished running the court on offense and pressing baseline to baseline on defense. It resulted in another run as they out scored the Sentinels 14-2 to start the half.

Opening a 23 point lead (46-23), the Knights coasted the rest of the way as everyone saw plenty of playing time.

The Knights backcourt provided most of the scoring as point guard Alex Self had 10 points, Stephanie Schramer had 14 points and Andrea Schuppner added 13 more. The trio shot a sizzling 14-for-19 from the floor. The Knights front court added a dozen more with 6 points from both Elizabeth Kresse and Shari Wenz.

Emily Kresse pulled down 7 rebounds with 3 blocked shots and Wenz and Schuppner grabbed 5 boards each. Ana Miller had a good night with 5 points, 3 rebounds, two assist and a steal.

Kaneland 70 Westminster Christian 23

"Holy rocket fuel Batman, these girls can play basketball"!

The Kaneland lady Knights totally dominated the Westminster Christian Warriors in the first round of the Burlington Central Thanksgiving Classic Tournament 70-23! It really wasn't much of a contest as the 2-0 Knights held the Warriors to just 4 points in the second half.

The running an gunning Knights scored 44 points in the first half which were more points that the Knights scored in a whole game a lot of times last year. But this year's full court press and running basketball can ring up the points, which just about guarantees an exciting season of Kaneland girls Basketball.

Although the Knights first two games which were both blowouts were not against the strongest competition, they still left Coach Dennis Hansen with a smile on his face. In this one nine girls scored 5 or more points, showing nice balance and good contributions from the bench.

Shari Wenz led the Knights with 14 points, but she had plenty of help as Elizabeth Kresse added 9, Andrea Schuppner and Stephanie Schramer had 7 each, Emily Kresse, Alex Self, and Kristi Reynolds had 6 each and Traci Genslinger and Jaymee Terry added 5.

Alex Self had 8 assist. The Kresse sisters hit the boards big time with Emily grabbing 8 rebounds and Elizabeth with 6. Reynolds also worked the glass well with 6 boards. Kaneland's pressing defense led to a lot of Warriors turnovers and 27 Kaneland steals. Schuppner led the way with 5 steals and Wenz and Self got 4 more each.

In a strange happening Warriors center Alisa Kerby fouled out of the game before the first half was over.

At the end of the game coach Hansen commented, "We just tried to keep the pressure on the ball and create some baskets off turnovers". And that they did as the Knights scored 20 points off transition.

Kaneland 42 Burlington Central 39

This one was an old fashion barn burner. And when the final buzzer sounded the Lady Knights had their third win of the season in three tries as they beat host Burlington Central 42-39 in the second round of the Burlington Central Thanksgiving Classic.

But it wasn't easy as the Knights trailed most of the night and were behind 29-20 mid-way through the third quarter.

The Lady's from Kaneland came out a little flat in this one getting only 10 shoots off in the first quarter and only 10 more in the second quarter. Some of the reason was a aggressive defense played by the rockets. But the Knights didn't respond well in their first real touch contest of the season committing an embarrassing 17 turnovers in the first half.

Actually Kaneland guards committed 20 turnovers in the game resulting in only 42 shoots at the basket for the Knights for the whole game. Less than half of the attempts they got in the first two games. But Andrea Schuppner made the most of her shots as she carried the Knights hitting 8-of-13 attempts, including 4-3's to score nearly half of the Knights points -20!

But despite playing poorly and trailing by 9 points the Knights wouldn't quit. As they scored 16 of the next 18 points thanks largely to Schuppner's shooting eye as she scored 12 points in the last quarter.

But the rockets came right back with a "3" and with just 3 minutes to play cut the Knights lead to 36-34. Then with 1:02 to play another Kaneland turnover lead to a Burlington 39-38 lead. But Schuppner hit her fourth 3 of the night with 29 seconds left to vault KHS to a 41-39 advantage as Kaneland fans jumped to their feet. The Knights defense tighten and BC couldn't score again as the Lady Knights moved to 3-0 on the young season and will play the first of four games this season against rival Sycamore Wednesday night for the Tournament Championship.

Emily Kresse had a nice game with 8 points, Alex Self had 6 points with 5 steals and Shari Wenz added 4 points with 4 rebounds.

"We didn't play well against a tough team and still won. That's a sign of a good team", said coach Dennis Hansen. "Thank goodness Andrea can shoot."

Kaneland 28 Sycamore 35

The Kaneland girls basketball team's hopes for an undefeated season came end the day before Thanksgiving, when they lost to Sycamore 35-28 in the Championship game of the Burlington Central Thanksgiving Classic. But they didn't go down without a fight.

It was the biggest game of the season so far and both teams came out so tight a can of WD40 wouldn't have helped. Shots clanked of the rim and balls where thrown away. For 4 minutes no one scored as the Knights missed their first 9 shots. Then finally a Sycamore free throw broke the ice at 3:46 of the opening period. And by the end of the first quarter the score was just; Sycamore 5 - Kaneland 4.

In the second quarter both teams used a full court press and scoring came at a premium. By the half way point both teams had only managed to score 12 points and went to locker room tied.

In the third quarter the Knights could only muster 2 points against a stiff Spartan defense and trailed going into the last quarter 22-14. But just like the game before these Lady Knights were not going to go down without a fight and begun to battle back.

Down 24-20 midway through the period, Andrea Schuppner hit a big three to pull the Knights within one, but the outside referee called off the shoot calling 3-seconds in the lane. It was a critical call. However, KHS was not going to quit and with 3:45 to play Shari Wenz sank one of two free throws to the tie the game at 24.

With the Kaneland fans chanting "Defense - Defense", the Lady Knights could not hold down a determined Sycamore team and found themselves on the backside of a 29-25 score with only 1:22 to play. From then on the Knights could only foul. The Spartans were almost perfect from the line down the stretch would not let Kaneland back in the game.

The Knights ended just 10-for-21 from the charity stripe and 8-for-44 from the field. Stephanie Schramer lead the Knights in scoring with 8 and Schuppner who had 20 the game before was held to 6. Wenz and Elizabeth Kresse each had 7 rebounds.

So does this make Sycamore the favorite to win the conference? Balderdash! The Spartans are good, but the Knights have three more chances to show them their determination to end up with the better record. The Knights are now 3-1 and the Spartans 4-0. Stay tuned.

Alex Self, Andrea Schuppner and Emily Kresse where named to the Thanksgiving Classic All Tournament team.

Kaneland 43 Evergreen Park 41

This was a huge win for the Lady Knights. It was an ugly win. It was a game the knights didn't run for the first time this season. It was played in front of only a handful of home fans. It was a win that was almost taken away by an official. But it was a WIN.

The score? Kaneland 43 and Evergreen Park 41, thanks to a last second shot by Shari Wenz to seal the victory. The win moved to Knights into a tie for first place in SPC conference race and improved their record to 4-1 for the season.

The team in black which trailed for almost the entire game came back in the fourth quarter for third straight game to make the long ride home an enjoyable one. But the "run and gun Knights" have lost the 'run" settling for a half court offense and to many times the the "gun" is shooting blanks. The result is close games, with the last three being decided in the last minute.

With a minute and a half left in the first half the Knights found themselves down by nine, the biggest margin of the season at 26-17. Thankfully they were able to score the last two baskets in the half to pull within 5 at the intermission.

The Knights were only able to cut the Mustang lead by two in the third quarter.

Entering the fourth quarter the Knights trailed 36-33 and for the first half of the quarter the Knights held the Mustangs scoreless, (in fact they only scored 5 points in the whole quarter). Only problem was the Knights scored only two themselves. Finally with 1:55 to play the Knights had their first lead since early in the first quarter as Alex Self stole the ball and drove the length of the court for a lay-up.

Then with 12 seconds to play and the score tied at 41-41, coach Dennis Hansen called time out. With the clock ticking down game on the line, Elizabeth Kresse fired a pass to Wenz underneath the basket. Up and in! Knights WIN!

A was a great win but a look at the stats book and it's clear Coach Hansen and team still have a lot of work to do. The Knights were a woeful 6 of 18 from the line, 1-of-5 from the three point arc, while the Kaneland guards committed 15 turnovers. And no Knight grabbed more than 4 rebounds, collecting only 20 in total

Again it was Andrea Schuppner who kept the Knights alive with her shooting eye scoring 15 points. Stephanie Schramer and Self added 8 points each. Self also had 4 steals and 8 assist playing a key role in the victory.

Kaneland 38 Lemont 44

Wow. This was another wild one, but this time the Knights couldn't get out of the deep hole they dug for themselves as their patented comeback bid fell just short, losing their first conference game of the season to Lemont, 44-38.

The Lady Knights grabbed an short lived 8-7 lead to start the game, but early substitutions brought a halt to the flow of the game for the Knights and a hot Lemont team took advantage running off 18 of the next 24 points to take a commanding 25-14 lead at halftime.

From there Kaneland begun to regain their tempo. But it didn't come easy as the Knights couldn't find the bottom of the basket. However, a stronger defensive effort got them to within six to start the 4th quarter.

The Knights kept picking away at lead, cutting it to three at 36-33 with 56 seconds left. Then with just 4 seconds left a Stephanie Schramer drive got the Knights to within 2 at 40-38.

Kaneland put on a full court pressing defense to try and get the ball, but it only resulted in a flagrant foul that led to the final 4 Injun points and a Lemont win.

Schramer led the Knights with 18 points all in the second half comeback bid. She also had 3 threes. Shari Wenz added 6 and Emily Kresse pulled down 7 rebounds. Alex Self had 7 assists and 4 steals. But normally dead-eye shooting Andrea Schuppner could net only 2 points in this one as only two girls scored more than 4 points.

The Knights now 4-2 for the season and 2-1 in the conference

Kaneland 52 Sycamore 43

It was Pack-The-Place night at Sycamore as the Kaneland Knights girls basketball team played it's most important game of the young season against undefeated and Conference leader Sycamore. The Spartans which had just beaten the Knights a 10 days ago found Kaneland's pressing defense to much to handle as the Knights came back in the fourth quarter to win, 52-43.

The victory was huge for the Knights in their quest to become SPC conference champion for the second year in a row. The win left Kaneland and Sycamore tied with Yorkville and Lemont for first place at 3-1 each. The Knights also improved their season record to 5-2.

The first half was a battle with neither team wanting to give an inch. By half time nothing had been decided as Sycamore led by a mire point 20-19. In the third quarter the Spartans were able to extend their lead to 4 going into the final 7 minutes 32-28. That's when Kaneland's Stephanie Schramer took charge scoring 14 of the Knights 24 points in the quarter.

But it was Kaneland's box-and-one defense that closed down Spartan point guard Jaime Strachan. Keeping Strachan from the basket was key as the Spartans could only capture 11 points in the final period. Ana Miller drew the assignment of guarding Strachan in the end and completely shut her down.

On the offensive side Schramer was 2-for-2 from the field and 10-for-10 from the line in the final quarter. She had help from Miller who hit a three along with a pair of free throws and Alex Self hit three more from the line.

Schramer ended the evening with a career high of 23 points. Emily Kresse added 8 points with Miller and Self scoring 5 each. Self also had 5 rebounds to lead the team.

Kaneland 45 Riverside-Brookfield 50

The Lady Knights took an extremely disappointing loss to the hands of host Riverside-Brookfield, 50-45.

This was not typical Lady Knights basketball, as the black and white team could never get started. They trailed 5-0 and then they fell to 8-2. And by the middle of the second quarter the Knights were down 22-12 and ended up trailing 24-15 at the half.

The Knights offense had became stagnant with all but 6 points coming from guard Stephanie Schramer as they couldn't seem to get into a rhythm. Meanwhile the Bulldogs were rolling thanks to some outstanding outside shooting.

Starting the second half R-B lit up the scoreboard with 3 three's. And they just kept firing as they built an insurmountable 40-25 lead by the of third quarter.

By the middle of the fourth quarter the Bulldogs were up by 16, 45-29. However, the Knights showed true grit as they fought back to within 10 at 49-39 with a minute-nine left in the game.

Poor free three shooting by the Bulldogs and a determined set of Kaneland guards in Alex Self and Stephanie Schramer made the score somewhat close at the end, but there was just too much ground to make up.

Schramer had her second 20+ game night scoring 21 points with 6 rebounds. Self had 7 (all in the last quarter) and Ana Miller played big for the second game in a row with 6 points. The amazing stat in this one was that the heart of Kaneland's front line was scoreless! Andrea Schuppner, Elizabeth Kresse, Traci Genslinger and Shari Wenz where all scoreless and Emily Kresse was too ill to play. Therefore, all but 2 points came from Kaneland guards. Moreover, the Knights quit running as they scored only 2 points off fast breaks.

The Knights are now 5-3 on the season and 3-2 in the conference. R-B is 6-2 and also 3-2 in the SPC.

Kaneland 54 Ridgewood 37

The Lady Knights took their running shoes out the closet and ran a 8 girl Ridgewood team right out of the Kaneland gym for a 54-37 win.

This was key win as the Knights had lost 2 out of their last 3 games. Also there is no coincidence the Knights have blown out three teams this season and in each of those games they used their run and gun style. They and are only 3-3 when their offense is more stagnate. But this one was fun basketball again and to add to the pleasure the Knights committed only 3 turnovers in the first half.

It started out a little slow as the Rebels and Knights both had 11 points after one quarter, but after the slow start the Knights started moving and out scored the Rebels 16-5 in the second quarter. They then out scored them 20-10 in the third quarter and by then the game was over.

If there was a short coming to this game for the Knights it was rebounding. They had only 10 rebounds in the first half and just 25 for the game, and many of those on long bounces that they tracked down with their hustle.

More good news - Andrea Schuppner found her shooting eye to lead the team in scoring with 14, hitting 7 of 12 shots.

Shari Wenz wasn't far behind with 13 points, plus 4 steals and had a team leading 4 rebounds with Ana Miller. Miller also had 8 points. Lynda Gould had 9 points and 3 boards. Alex self led the Knights with 5 assist and 5 steals.

Kaneland 47 Kingston-Genoa 21

Schuppner - Swish. Schuppner - swish. Schuppner - swish for 3. Emily Kresse swish. 9-0. Time out Genoa-Kingston. Just 90 seconds into the game and the Knights had control of the game and it was downhill from there as the Kaneland won the first round of the Genoa-Kingston Christmas Tournament beating the Cogs 47-21.

The Knights scored a whopping 19 points in the first quarter and then went on to hold GK to just 1 point in the second quarter for a 27-11 halftime lead.

The second half was almost as bad as the first for the Cogs as they were out distanced 20-10 by the pressing Knights.

Kaneland now 7-3 on the season was led by Andrea Schuppner with 13 points and Emily Kresse with 10. They had help from Shari Wenz with 5 points, Alex self with 8 assist and 4 steals, and Kristi Reynolds with 6 rebounds. All but 2 of the 14 Kaneland players scored in this one.

In earlier action Sycamore beat Marian Central 56-53. The Knights play Sycamore in game 3-of-4 for the season at Genoa-Kingston.

Kaneland 41 Sycamore 39

Kaneland 24 Marian Central 43

Kaneland 61 Elmwood Park 37

The Lady Knights finished off the first half of the season and won their last game of the Century beating Elmwood Park convincingly 61-37. The win maybe their most impressive of the year came on the heals of their worst lost just two days earlier to Marian Central.

The Knights controlled the game from the start with 14-4 lead after the opening quarter and 30-10 at the half. The Knights were running again with 8 transition basket attempts.

This was game where everyone got a chance to play as Andrea Schuppner found her shooting range again hitting 4 of 5 3-point attempts to lead the Knights with 16 points. Emily Kresse was a force with 13 points (12 in the first half) to go with 9 rebounds. Shari Wenz added 8 points, 7 boards and 3 steals. Alex Self also had a nice game with 7 points, 4 assist, 4 steals and 4 rebounds.

In all, 11 players scored for the Knights who finished the first half of the season 9-4 and 5-2 in the conference.