The Mendota Trojans came in hot Tuesday night, but the Boilers righted the ship and pulled out a 56-48 conference win at Mendota to extend their win streak to six games.
With the win, Kewanee moves into a first place tie with Princeton at 6-2 in TRAC-East play. The Boilers are 19-7 overall and Mendota slips to 11-15 and 3-5 in the conference.
The Trojans rolled up a 19-14 first quarter lead, but the Boilers returned the favor in the second quarter and outscored Mendota 19-12 to take a 33-31 lead at the half.
“Once again, our first quarter lack of mental focus on executing the game plan and limiting easy opportunities for our opponents continued tonight,” said Kewanee Coach Matt Clark. “Giving up 19 points in the first quarter is way too many.”
Isaiah Nanez hit two 3-pointers and scored eight points to lead Mendota’s first quarter surge. Cole Strouss added six points in support.
Braden Clark had six first quarter points for the Boilers and he added seven more in the second frame for a total of 13 points. Colson Welgat sank two treys and Blaise Lewis chipped in with five in the first half.
Nanez scored seven more in the second quarter for a total of 15 at the half. Strouss tossed in eight first half points and Aden Tillman made two treys for six points.
The score was knotted at 40 with eight minutes left to play, but the Boilers finished strong with a 16-8 fourth quarter effort en route to the 56-48 win.
Catrelle Reed scored seven points in the fourth quarter (10 total in the second half) to help the Boilers shake the Trojans. Welgat added five more in the fourth quarter.
“Credit to the guys, though, the final three quarters we held them to 29 points (total), which will win us a lot of games,” said Clark. “Our defensive execution has been at a high level during this six-game win streak. If it wasn’t for our poor foul shooting tonight the game wouldn’t have been a close at the end,” he added.
Four Kewanee players scored in double figures on the night. Clark had 15 points and three players scored 11 (Lewis, Welgat and Reed).
Mendota also had a balanced scoring attack. Strouss and Nanez each had 15 points and Tillman contributed 14 in the loss.
“It wasn’t our best offensive performance, but I’m proud of how we kept battling at the defensive end and holding them to just three made field goals in the fourth quarter,” noted Clark. “At this point of the year we’ll take wins any way we can get them.”
Clark is No. 2 on KHS boys all-time scoring list
Braden Clark surpassed Kavon Russell to move into second place on the KHS all-time scoring list with 1,697 career points.
