A young, scrappy, fearless basketball team can be a threat to take down a more talented foe at any time, even more so when they’re making their 3-pointers.

When the Kankakee boys basketball team hosted Thornton for a Southland Athletic Conference clash on Friday, that’s exactly what the Kays found themselves up against at the start. But after the Wildcats hung around for the better part of the quarters, the Kays surged away late and got another splendid performance from Lincoln Williams in an 83-67 win.

Despite improving to 5-0 and 2-0 in the Southland, Kays coach Chris Pickett saw plenty of room for improvement.

“We knew they’d play hard and they were going to scrap, that’s just the reputation of Thornton teams since they’ve been in our conference,” Pickett said. “We know they aren’t going to come and play passive basketball. We were aware of that but I don’t think we responded in the right way.

“We won this game because we’re an older group, were more physical and are taller,” he added. “But pound for pound they outplayed us. It’s just one of those things where hopefully you can learn from it by getting the win, but we can’t be out-worked like that again.”

The first of three first-half 3-pointers from freshman DaKari Nesbitt gave the Wildcats (1-4, 0-2) one of their two leads, both of which came in the first quarter. The Kays answered by storming ahead 17-5 and settled into a 28-18 lead when Kankakee senior guard Cedric Terrell III buried a deep triple in the closing seconds of the opening stanza.

The final margin and halftime margin were tied for the largest lead of the game. Williams caught fire in the second quarter to give the hosts a 50-34 lead at the break, with the spectacular senior tallying 22 of his game-high 32 points in the first half.

Through five games, Williams has scored no less than 24 points and is averaging 32.8 points per game. Facing Thornton’s physical paint defense, Williams shot 10 first-half free throws, and in only making six of them, is still finding areas to continue growing his game.

“I know coming into a game I’m going to shoot anywhere from 8-12 free throws a game,” Williams said. “I missed what, four or five? I should have had 40, so I have to work on that.”

Williams was held to a pair of free throws for his only third-quarter points as the Wildcats used four second-chance and points off turnovers each to claw back to the 8-10 point range over the end of the third and start of the fourth.

But senior big man EJ Hazelett put up a pair of buckets within a few seconds of one another – a putback at the rim quickly followed by a steal and slam – not only put the Kays up 75-62 with 3:30 left, but jolted the crowd and team alike to allow them to seal the deal.

“It was great, especially getting on that steal and capitalizing off that,” Hazelett said. “It felt good and that was a great 20 seconds to seal the win.”

Hazelett was second to Williams with an 18-point night, adding 10 rebounds for a double-double. While Williams’ ability to get to the rim fueled the Kays in the first half, they countered Thornton’s screen switching and played through Hazelett in the low post in the second half.

“Off the screens they were switching, so if they were going to switch, anybody that was guarding would be a mismatch,” Hazelett said. “Coach trusted me and I’m going to make the right play.”

Williams added seven boards and three dimes to his 32 points while Terrell III was also in double figures with 13 points to go along with seven assists and four rebounds. Fellow seniors Myair Thompson and Kenaz Jackson had nine points apiece, the latter of whom made his season debut after an offseason injury kept him out for four games.

With Hazelett moving back to Kankakee after moving to Indiana in seventh grade, Friday was the first time this entire Kankakee core has played an organized game together since then.

“It felt great,” Hazelett said. “I feel we played (well) together. Everyone was flowing, getting great shots and great looks. It was great for all of us for Kenaz to be back.”