Kaneland doesn’t scrimmage in practice, instead doing what coach Ernie Colombe calls four-minute wars.

Trailing Sycamore at halftime in a key early-season Interstate 8 battle on Friday, Colombe challenged the Knights to win the first four minutes of the third quarter.

Down 10, Kaneland scored the next 15 points to take the lead in an eventual 65-56 win over the Spartans to remain undefeated.

“In practice, we always do game-like things, game-like situations,” said senior guard Marshawn Cocroft, who finished with 18 points and seven rebounds. “When it does come down to the wire, every single person on the team, and even on the bench, we’re ready for any situation that can happen.”

Sycamore (14-2 overall, 2-1 Interstate 8) led 28-23 at halftime. Aiden Messenbrink opened the third quarter with a layup off an assist from Marcus Johnson, then hit a 3-pointer on the next possession to push the lead to 33-23.

Evan Frieders got the Knights (15-0, 3-0) on the board in the second half with a putback, then Kaneland forced turnovers on the next five Sycamore possessions.

“People look at a 15-0 run and think offense, but it starts with our defense,” Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said. “A key was getting Jalen [Carter, who had two steals during the run] back out there. He had a couple of fouls and was able to play almost all that third quarter.”

Cocroft capped the run with a putback for a 38-33 lead with 2:57 left. A Johnson 3-pointer stopped the bleeding for the Spartans.

Sycamore took a blow with 4:39 left in the game when Johnson, who finished with a team-best 16 points, fouled out.

“We kind of struggled right away,” Sycamore coach Ethan Franklin said. “That was a big deal. He was having a great game, so him being taken out of the game was unfortunate.”

Cocroft broke a tie by making a free throw, but 19 seconds later, Sycamore went ahead 50-49 with a pair of free throws by Josiah Mitchell.

It was their last lead. Carter hit his third 3-pointer of the game and Kaneland won another four-minute war, outscoring the Spartans 14-1 in the four minutes after Mitchell’s free throw.

Colombe said thanks to the four-minute wars, a deficit isn’t anything that’s going to rattle his players.

“We don’t really scrimmage a lot in practice,” Colombe said. “It’s like four-minute segments. So we talked about winning the first four minutes of the third quarter. With high school kids, it’s easy to overwhelm them and get them to think about 20 things. So we just want to focus in on the next four minutes, then we’ll see where we’re at.”

Feuerbach, who was tasked with guarding 6-foot-9 forward Freddy Hassan most of the night, finished with 13 points and eight rebounds. Mitchell added 11 points and 10 rebounds for the Spartans.

“We have to understand when you play a team of this caliber, it has to be for 32 minutes,” Franklin said. “Our guys fought, they battled, and we’re going to see them again.”

Evan Frieders scored 13 for the Knights. Hassan finished with 10 points and nine rebounds.

Cocroft said he thought it was the most the Knights had trailed in the second half this year in a game and liked the way his team came back.

“Coach said it was a good test, and we passed it,” Cocroft said. “We haven’t been down like that before. It was good adversity for us, because they’re a very good team. They only have two losses on the year, to Waukegan which is a very good team and also Naperville Central. This was a great, great test for us.”