Balanced Kankakee beats Crete-Monee
When Kankakee takes the floor, it's no secret that all eyes are on Lincoln Williams.
The 6-5 shooting guard is a four-star prospect and Illinois' consensus No. 1 junior in the 247Sports.com rankings.
But he's hardly the only Kays player to pay attention to. On Friday, 6-7 senior Eli Stipp scored an efficient 16 points and grabbed eight rebounds as No. 18 Kankakee cruised past host Crete-Monee 65-42.
Stipp made all eight of his shots from the field to lead five Kays in double figures. All the attention paid to Williams means there are plenty of good looks for his teammates.
"I've had some efficient nights," Stipp said. "I don't really step outside of the arc too much. I just get it done in the paint."
The Kays get it done all over the floor offensively. Four different players hit three-pointers on Friday and five finished in double figures.
Williams had 12 points and eight rebounds along with two dunks, two steals and a block. Myair Thompson and Jordan Davis also scored 12 points each and Kenaz Jackson Jr. finished with 10.
Jaylen Blakes led Crete-Monee (12-6, 2-2 Southland) with 16 points.
"Our coach preaches that every game, that we've got five guys out there that can score," Stipp said. "We'll have guys off the bench have 15, and we know all of our starters [can get] 20 any night."
And much of it comes back to all the attention paid to Williams.
"He's a good player to play off of," Stipp said. "Because if you pass it to him, you can get an assist. And if he passes to you, it's always a good pass."
The Kays (12-2, 5-0 Southland) have had four players lead the team in scoring at least once this season. And the potential is there for even more to do so.
"One of the luxuries as a coach is when you have five to six — we actually have seven guys who can go out there and lead us," Kays coach Chris Pickett said.
That Stipp is one of them is a testament to his development.
"If you saw Eli in seventh, eighth grade, you would never think that he's got to this point," Pickett said. "But he's a grinder. As a coach, we love having guys who are sponges, who listen to what we're trying to teach them, and they take everything in because you're only going to get better
"And that's exactly what happened."
Kankakee had a busy December of nonconference travel, but now has some pivotal local games coming up. One of the biggest is Tuesday at home against No. 2 Rich.
"That schedule is by design because we were able to play against different styles of teams, teams that were different levels as far as competitiveness," Pickett said. "And it's made us better. The two games we lost — we lost to two ranked 4A teams [Bolingbrook and Curie] by a combined six points.
"We took something away from each game and we got back to the gym. It grabbed our guys' attention so they start listening to what we're talking about. And we're just getting better at it."