The Kankakee boys basketball team couldn’t have dreamt up a much better start to Friday’s IHSA Class 3A Ottawa Sectional championship against Morton, scoring the game’s first nine points to take charge early.

But despite being in an early hole to the state’s No. 1-ranked team, a fearless Potters team dashed right back, took control over the middle of the game and finished off their upset by a 61-48 final.

“That’s playoff basketball,” Kays coach Chris Pickett said. “You know that when you punch, they’re going to counter, and then it’s going to just go back and forth like that. We kind of ate it, took a couple crazy shots that fed them their energy and it was difficult to stop at that point.

“A team like that, once we punched them in the mouth, you could see a little doubt in their face. But once we opened the door for their opportunities, they started to gain more confidence. Next thing you know they out-executed us, they shot the ball well and we didn’t have the effort for 32 minutes that we wanted to.”

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Boys Basketball: IHSA Class 3A Ottawa Sectional championship - Kankakee vs. Morton Kankakee's Lincoln Williams (1) walks away as Morton celebrates in the final seconds of the game during the Kays' 61-48 loss to Morton in the IHSA Class 3A Ottawa Sectional championship on Friday, March 6, 2026. (Tiffany Blanchette)

The Kays end their season with a 29-2 record, the most the program’s had since at least the merger between Eastridge and Westview in 1984. Included in those wins were a Kankakee Holiday Tournament title, several showcase wins against other premier teams throughout the state and the Midwest, an undefeated run through the Southland Athletic Conference and the program’s third straight regional title.

Led by a close-knit group of seniors that’s bolstered by four-star recruit and four-year starter Lincoln Williams, Indiana State commit EJ Hazelett and three-year core pieces Cedric Terrell III, Myair Thompson and Kenaz Jackson, Pickett wants those highlights to be remembered more than Friday’s heartbreaker.

“We had a good run,” Pickett said. “A special run, a group of guys who we’ve been knowing since they were in fifth, sixth grade. The message at the end was, don’t let this one night define everything. We had a nice run. And tonight we came out and ran up against a team that shot the ball well, executed well. But tonight’s not going to define who we are.”

But after taking that early 9-0 lead in the opening minutes, the Kays didn’t look too much like themselves for a lot of the night. As the game slowed into a methodical, half-court affair, the Potters regained steam and took their first lead of the game when Silas Steffen drilled a corner 3-pointer that gave them a 16-14 lead in the final moments of the first.

That lead swole to 30-22 by the half after the Kays scored just two points between the final five minutes of the second and first two minutes of the third, when Hazelett’s second-chance putback made it a single-digit game at 32-24 2:12 into the second half.

The Kays later forced three straight Morton turnovers, the third highlighted by a Williams breakaway slam that made it a 38-33 tilt with 2:25 left in the third, but that’s as close as the Kays got the rest of the way, as Steffen’s slam with 1:54 on the clock made it a 54-45 contest and served as the game’s exclamation point.

“This group, we’ve worked so hard,” said Steffen, whose 13 points tied Collin Burns for second on the team. “When we were in third grade we knew we could do this. Seven seniors, we knew we could get this done. We’re just so happy.”

Another senior, Alex McKie, tallied a team-high 15 points, including a pair of late 3-pointers and a 4-for-4 effort to close the game out from the free throw line. And as exhilarated as he and the Potters (29-4) were as they hoisted the sectional plaque and cut down the nets at Kingman Gym, he and his teammates also know they still have to defeat an unbeaten Kaneland squad at Monday’s DeKalb Supersectional to realize their ultimate goal of a state appearance.

“It feels amazing, but at the same time, I’m getting back to reality,” McKie said. “I know we’ve got to come back and play Monday now against Kaneland at Northern Illinois for a chance to go to state, which is a lifelong dream.”

Williams had a game-high 18 points to go along with three rebounds, an assist, two blocks and a steal. Hazelett battled early foul trouble to tally 10 points, three boards, an assist, a steal and a block. Jackson had nine points and Thompson added eight.

The Kays have won at least 20 games in each of Pickett’s eight full seasons at the helm, adding a 13-1 record during the COVID-shortened 2021 season. They advanced to the sectional championship for the first time since the 2020 team saw COVID cancel the remainder of the season the night before they were set to play for a sectional championship.

But out of the now nine classes of Kankakee seniors Pickett has coached, this one might have been the most special and memorable.

“They’re a united group,” Pickett said. “They’re kind of more like family than they are friends. They’ll laugh together, they’ll celebrate together, they’ll fight each other, they’ll argue with each other. That’s brotherly love.

“They’ve been together, and that has a lot to do with the chemistry on the court. That’s Kankakee. Everyone’s together during the good times and the bad. We’re always going to remember them for being that, a tight group that grew together and was talented.”