A 16-point deficit early in the second quarter on Tuesday didn’t seem to faze Morris all that much in an eventual 56-48 win over Kankakee.

Despite entering the game with 11 fewer wins than Kankakee (17-6), Morris (7-16) dug out of that early hole and held on down the stretch to head back home with an upset win.

The win was the second straight for Morris to come on the road against a team with nearly three times as many wins, joining Saturday’s 67-54 win over a Pontiac team that was 14-9 entering that game.

Preceding these last two wins were losses in the first six games of January. Half those losses came by five or fewer points.

Senior Alyssa Jepson, who scored 14 points Tuesday, said a 39-34 loss to Hall on Jan. 20 served as a bit of a reset.

“That loss to Hall, we learned from it and just learned what we needed to improve,” she said. “We knew our next two games were on the road against two good teams, so we really just went into these games with a positive attitude.”

Jepson had 12 second-half points and added five rebounds and three assists.

She was also perfect from the free-throw line on two trips over the game’s final 40 seconds, both times pushing the Morris lead back to six points and deflating Kankakee’s comeback hopes.

But before there was a lead to protect, Morris had a lot of work to do.

Kankakee opened the game on a quick 6-0 run and took a 16-4 lead by the end of the first quarter.

After the Kays’ lead grew to 20-4, Morris recovered to mount a 15-1 run, getting within two points at 21-19 before Kankakee’s London Stroud hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put the Kays up five at the break.

But that clutch shot did not give the Kays back the momentum, and Jepson soon tied things up at 26-26 early in the third quarter before Tessa Shannon gave Morris its first lead at 28-26 with 5:30 to go in the third.

Three more ties and six more lead changes would follow, with Morris taking the lead for good at 45-43 on a Jepson basket midway through the fourth.

Shannon, who finished with a team-high 16 points, said that the team has a mentality that they want to keep fighting after falling behind, and everyone was on the same page for Tuesday’s comeback.

“We don’t like being down, and we’re a very aggressive team,” she said. “It’s just really nice that we have so many girls (contribute) and it was such a team effort tonight.”

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Morris's Lily Hansen looks for an open shot as Kankakee's Shania Johnson, left, guards in a game on Tuesday, January 27, 2026. (Nicholas Holstein for Shaw Local)

Shannon and Jepson were two of four Morris players to score in double figures. Maddi Simpson had 12 points, while Lily Hansen added 10 points, eight rebounds and four steals.

Having so many different players that were able to contribute to the scoring effort was certainly a big factor in the win, and head coach Mike Lutz said more and more players have been able to up their offensive output as the season has gone on.

“We’ve averaged one player in double figures for most of the year,” he said. “Around Christmas, we’d start to get a second, and against Pontiac (Saturday), I know we had three, and tonight we had four, and that’s great. The more the merrier.”

Tuesday’s 56 points were the third most this season for Morris, with the 67 points Saturday being its season high.

Despite the slow start to the season, Lutz said he wants the team to keep gearing up for as strong a finish as possible.

“I told them, ‘You guys are going to be tough to beat, and I don’t care who you’re playing,’ ” he said. “We’re looking to finish strong in the conference and get ready for regionals, because this is the time of year you want to be playing like this.”

For Kankakee, Ava Johnson finished with a game-high 19 points. Stroud added 14, and Malea Harrison added seven, all of which came in the fourth quarter.

Head coach Kurt Weigt said the Kays had just a few too many mental lapses against an opportunistic and confident opponent.

“We had some breakdowns defensively in that second quarter and gave them a little momentum,” he said. “There were a couple instances where we don’t rebound or we turn the basketball over in key possessions, and you just can’t do that against teams that are gritty like those guys.”