The 75th edition Kankakee Holiday Tournament got underway on Friday, and the host Kays (8-1) started things off with a bang Friday night.

The five-time reigning maroon bracket champions, Kankakee downed Chicago Agriculture Science 82-43 for their third straight win and fifth game this season breaking the 80-point mark.

Senior Lincoln Williams, who was the only active member of the 75-player All-75th Anniversary Team that was recognized prior to Friday’s game, padded his already-impressive tournament resume with 36 points and 14 rebounds in his fourth and final year at the KHT.

“The community gets to come out and we get to put on a show for the whole community,” Williams said. “It’s just a great event. Everybody comes out every year and supports us.”

The Kays got off to a bit of a slow start, trailing 10-8 midway through the first quarter. But they rallied to take a 15-10 lead by the end of the opening period and then opened the second quarter on an 11-0 run to seize control.

They led 42-15 at halftime and 65-34 entering the fourth quarter, with Williams and most of the starters sitting for the final eight minutes.

Cedric Terrell III added 10 points, five assists and four steals while EJ Hazelett, playing his first KHT game, had 10 points, six rebounds and five assists. Myair Thompson had nine points and five assists while Kenaz Jackson chipped in eight points.

Friday’s win came after a big three-game slate for the Kays. It included a 56-49 loss to fellow Illinois heavyweight DePaul College Prep on Dec. 14, an 82-72 win over Southland Athletic Conference rival Bloom on Dec. 19 and a 60-53 win in St. Louis against Missouri powerhouse Vashon on Dec. 20.

Head coach Chris Pickett said that run has helped the team solidify heading into the new year.

“Once we get to game five, six or seven, we have a good idea of where we are as a team and who we are as a team, and we’re kind of happy with our progress,” he said. “What we’re working on now is consistency, no matter who it is we play, whether it’s a team we don’t think is as good as us or it’s a state champion. We have to have the same effort.”

Kankakee will play Richards at 6:30 p.m. Saturday for the maroon bracket semifinals.

Preceding Kankakee’s game in the main gym Friday night was a blue bracket matchup between Manteno and Peotone, the third of four games in the Rumble on Route 50 rivalry this season.

The teams had split the first two matchups, with Manteno winning the first at the Coal City Thanksgiving Tournament and Peotone returning the favor in Illinois Central Eight Conference play a week and a half later.

Friday, it was Manteno (6-5) picked up a 60-49 win to reclaim the edge over the Blue Devils (6-5) in the regular season series, which will conclude in Manteno on Jan. 23.

The Panthers got out to a 20-7 lead in the first quarter, which Peotone cut to 20-12 by the end of the quarter. Peotone kept chipping away, and even took a couple of brief one-point leads in the third quarter, but Manteno managed to pull back ahead and close things out.

“The third time is always tough playing a team,” Manteno head coach Zach Meyers said. “But we knocked some good shots down tonight. I think we held them to three 3-pointers tonight, so we did a good job defending them.”

Senior Braden Campbell led the way with 16 points. The next four top scorers for the Panters were sophomores, with Ramsey Owens finishing with 14 points and Jack Gotkowski and Cade Bechard adding 10 and nine points, respectively.

Nick Cronin poured in 21 points for the Blue Devils, 15 of which came in the second and third quarters. Nate Wehrmann added eight points while Ethan McNeill and Alex Chenoweth added seven apiece.

The loss snapped a four-game win streak for Peotone.

“We can’t give up 20 points in the first quarter,” head coach Ron Olofsson said. “...We had a rough start, and then for some reason gave up some easy baskets, just open layups. I’m not sure what we did there, but that really hurt us.”

Manteno will play St. Anne in semifinals of the blue bracket on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Cardinals (8-4) beat Armstrong 66-52 Friday. No individual stats were immediately available for St. Anne.

Peotone will play Armstrong at 4 p.m. Saturday.

The other blue bracket semifinal will feature Clifton Central (10-2), which beat Momence (7-5) 54-52 Friday. No individual stats were immediately available for the Comets, who will play top seed Christ the King in the semis at 5 p.m.

Momence was led by Erick Castillo with 15 points, D’Angelo Hundley with 12 and Tommy Rounds with 10.

Christ the King handed Grant Park (0-9) a 93-26 loss Friday. Grant Park was led by Rigo Venegas with 11 points.