The Kankakee boys basketball team has been up front about its primary objective all season long – hoisting the IHSA Class 3A state championship trophy for the first time in school history.

The Kays officially embarked on that journey when they and Morris each made the westward trek to Geneseo for Wednesday’s regional semifinal, where the Kays withstood an early Morris scare and ran away with a 63-38 win that will send them back to Geneseo on Friday in search of their third straight regional title.

“At the end of the day we came out kind of slow, I guess,” said Kankakee senior forward EJ Hazelett, who matched teammate Lincoln Williams with a game-best 20 points. “We kind of took our opponent lightly. We saw the crowd and those bright lights, but we got the job done and can get better from here.”

The final score was a stark contrast from the game’s start, which saw five lead changes and four ties by the time Kankakee’s Myair Thompson finished at the rim through contact to make it an 11-9 game with 2:28 left in the first. It was the third basket in as many possessions for Thompson, who finished with 13 points.

“What allowed me to get going was basically the plays,” Thompson said. “Everybody can score, you’ve got to stop everybody. They were keying on EJ and Lincoln at the beginning and didn’t realize I could score.”

Morris (11-21) employed the most methodical of approaches in the early going, looking to keep the ball away from an electric Kankakee offense that’s averaging 69.7 points per game. But the Kays (27-1) started to up the pressure and play a game more at their pace, which allowed a few Morris turnovers that went for Williams’ slams the other way and gave the Kays breathing room with a 30-17 lead at the half.

“We battled,” Morris coach Joe Blumberg said. “I didn’t know if we were going to be able to battle for two minutes, four minutes, six minutes. How long could we stay with them? Just really proud for two-and-a-half quarters. Williams had those steals and runouts, otherwise it’s probably a four or six-point game at the half.”

The Kays’ lead stayed between 13 and 15 points for most of the third, but Kankakee put things on ice by ending the third on a 14-4 run over the last two minutes, with Williams and Hazelett combining for 10 of those points.

After the Kays started to pick up the pace toward the end of the second, Kays coach Chris Pickett said they were able to get even more comfortable as the game went on.

“We knew they wanted to be methodical and they wanted to try to get us to break down,” Pickett said. “And they did a couple of times, but we were able to get in the passing lane on a couple of plays, were able to get the ball to the rim, get in transition and just turn it on quickly.”

While the Kays, the No. 1 ranked team in the IHSA Class 3A Associated Press Poll, will face either Geneseo or Plano in Friday’s championship, Morris’ season came to an end Wednesday, an ending Blumberg said his team should be proud of.

“They’re just good kids,” Blumberg said. “No, we didn’t have the most wins and we’re not a basketball town. We’re a football, we’re a baseball town, and it’s hard to take your lumps in the winter, and these kids just show up big every day. They’re positive. They’re optimistic. They’re enthusiastic.”

And while their to-do list won’t be complete without cutting down the nets at State Farm Center in Champaign in a few weeks, Thompson and the Kays know there’s a long time and a lot of basketball left before then.

“One game at a time, for real,” Thompson said. “Just take it one game at a time.”