The Kankakee boys basketball team hasn’t been shy about its goals for the season, cutting down the nets at Champaign’s State Farm Center as the IHSA Class 3A State champions.

The Kays couldn’t have asked for a better gauge of how close they are to that goal on Sunday, when they took on DePaul Prep – the two-time defending Class 3A champs and the Class 2A champions before that – at the Team Rose Shootout at Mount Carmel on Sunday.

Kankakee scored the first five points and held the lead three different times in the first quarter, but the Rams found breathing room late in the frame and never looked back, holding off a few Kays comeback attempts to hand Kankakee (5-1) its first loss by a 56-49 final.

"It’s good to be in games like this because it lets you know where you are," Kays coach Chris Pickett said. “Especially for us, this is game number six, so we’ve had some tests but this is like the ultimate test.

“It gives us an idea of where we are and what we need to work on,” he continued. “And based on the conversation that we just had, our next goal is to get everybody on the same page and move forward with it.”

Lincoln Williams’ steal and ensuing jam started the night, followed by a Kenaz Jackson 3-pointer that quickly made it a 5-0 game two minutes in. But the Rams (8-1) went on a 17-6 run to set the tone for a game in which they led by 4-to-12 points the rest of the way.

Senior guard Rykan Woo led the Rams in the first half, scoring 12 of his team-high 21 points in the first two frames, including an 8-for-8 half from the charity stripe. The free-throw line weighed heavily into the final score, as the Rams were 25-of-29 as a team and the Kays shot 12-of-25.

“We lost by seven, so there you go,” Pickett said of the difference at the line. "I’m happy with our second-half defense, I’m happy with our grit offensively, but those little things, you have to do them against DePaul Prep."

Another of the little things was how the Kays attacked DePaul’s pack-the-paint defense. The Rams were able to slow the high-flying Williams, who entered Sunday averaging 32.8 points per game, to a season-low 14 points. Forward EJ Hazelett hit a couple second-half 3-pointers and matched Woo with 21 points of his own in a premier matchup against the Rams’ Rashaun Porter (14 points).

Pickett said that the Kays both handled the DePaul defense and how they themselves defended both improved as the game went on, but it wasn’t enough against a machine as well-oiled as the Rams.

"The reputation they have as a team is that they’re going to pack the paint and make you have to earn everything offensively," Pickett said. “The first half we struggled with that and the second half we did a lot better, and on the defensive end in the first half we had some meltdowns and in the second half were a lot better.

“But they’re a team that’s going to execute their stuff, so in order for you to be successful, you can’t hurt yourself. And we missed a lot of free throws, and that hurt ourselves.”

The Kays visit Peoria Tuesday, quickly come home to host Bloom in a top-notch Southland Athletic Conference matchup on Friday before they head to St. Louis to take on Vashon (Missouri) at the Midwest Showdown.

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Kankakee's Myair Thompson shoots a 3-pointer during a game against DePaul Prep at the Team Rose Shootout at Mount Carmel Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (Mason Schweizer)