Kane wins barn burner over Johnsonburg 60-59
The Kane Wolves boys basketball team played maybe their most complete game of the year as they picked up a huge win over Johnsonburg. In front of a packed house both teams put on a great game. Both defenses came up big at some point in the game. With the elementary teams introduced it may have gave the Wolves a little hometown fire. Neither team had more than a four point lead until with just over a minute and a half left in the game Kane was able to hit some clutch free throws and had an eight point lead. Two straight steals by the Rams cut the lead to just four. Kane was finally able to clear the pressure and Johnsonburg was forced to foul. Dane Anderson hit two big free throws to give
Kane a six point lead. Johnsonburg not totally rattled came down and a big three by Aaron Meyers cut the lead in half. Kane had a few more chances to pretty much put the game out of reach but missed foul shots giving the Rams hope knowing a 3-pointer would tie. They were able to work the ball out perfectly as Jake Lobaugh was fouled shooting a three with one second left. He calmly went to the line and hit the first two nothing but the bottom of the net. The third shot was a little off to the right and Ricky Zampogna pulled down the rebound to secure the very hard fought victory. Kane for some reason did not foul to use up the clock. They only had five team fouls at the time so a foul and the Rams have to take the ball out again.
“It was a huge win and it avenged an earlier loss by 15 points. We talked if we are exhausted and leave it all on the floor we have a great chance to win. It was a total team effort and we definitely left it all on the court. We made some big adjustments after that mid season slump when we lost seven games in a row and the kids are now buying into the system,” said Coach Cory Darr.
In Junior Varsity action Johnsonburg defeated Kane 37-15. Derek Warofka led Kane in scoring with 5 points followed by Phinn Chamberlain and Isaiah Smith who scored three and Brock Wensel and Logan Gabriel each added a basket.
Kane will close out their regular season Monday, February 13 when they travel to Cranberry. With a win they will end the season 11-11. Great end to the season considering they had a 7 game losing streak in the middle and were 5-10 at one point.
Kane (60) D. Anderson 3 4-6 11, S. Lundeen 2 0-0 6, L. Darr 3 3-4 10, R. Zampogna 7 2-2 20, S. Szymanski 4 1-3 9, D. Paul 2 0-1 4 Johnsonburg (59) A. Myers 9 4-4 24, L. Zimmerman 5 0-0 10, C. Asti 2 0-2 5, J. Lobaugh 0 2-3 2, I. Jackson 8 0-0 16, E. Hoffman 1 0-0 2