Reveling in a four-peat
Cavinder, Martin lead Kankakee Valley to another conference title
Wi nning a fourth straight Northwest Crossroads Conference title was a goal for Kankakee Valley.
Paced by the performances of senior guards Cat Cavinder and Sarah Martin, the Kougars checked off that box Friday night with a 67-56 victory over Andrean.
Cavinder scored 13 of her team-high 18 points in the second half, and Martin added 14 for the Kougars (17-3, 5-0).
“It’s a big deal to me — I’m really proud of my team,” Cavinder said. “We’ve all been together for so long, and all the work and effort we’ve put in showed. We showed we can rely on everybody.”
The Kougars needed everybody to overcome the effort of senior guard Karli Miller, who scored a gamehigh 25 points for Andrean (13-10, 4-1).
Kankakee Valley coach Doug Nelson gave Martin a pep talk about the crowd.
“He told me to soak it all in, come out and play with a chip on my shoulder,” said Martin, who made all nine of her free throw attempts. “This means a lot to me.
“My freshman year when we won, we made a big deal out of it. Then, after we won the third title, coach (Ryan) Myers said no one had ever done that before so we wanted (four straight).”
The Kougars complemented Cavinder and Martin by using their depth effectively.
Despite being played by foul trouble, Maddie Swart scored nine points. Kaylee Barrett added seven, Aubrey Toppen and Courtney Sizemore each had six, and Karmen Nowak chipped in with five.
Andrean led 16-14 after one quarter, but trailed 2927 at halftime.
Kankakee Valley took a 43-38 lead into the fourth quarter, even though the Kougars did not score a point in the first 3:11 of the third.
The Kougars, however, broke the game open in the fourth as Cavinder scored eight points for a 56-44 lead.
“I just wanted us to keep a lead and try to extend it because they had a pretty rowdy crowd in a good environment,” Cavinder said. “To me, momentum was a huge thing.
“I just try to do what I had to do to make the team win — get everyone in- volved, communicate with them and keep them going.”
Andrean coach Tony Scheub was proud of his team’s effort.
“The kids played so hard for 32 minutes,” he said. “I think we gave them everything they could handle.
“We tried to extend our defense (in the fourth quarter), but they’re so fast it just opened things up more for them to drive.”
It was Kankakee Valley’s third game in four days. The Kougars earned a welldeserved rest.
“This means a lot to the kids,” Nelson said of winning conference. “To come in and take care of business in this environment was big. They came out and smacked us in the face early, but we responded.”