In a contest that was back-and-forth throughout the opening 22 minutes, the Kaneland boys basketball team exploded on a game-changing 14-0 run to end the third and start the fourth quarters of Monday’s semifinal contest at the 62nd Plano Christmas Classic against La Salle-Peru.

The top-seeded Knights (12-0), sparked by a trio of 3-pointers by senior guard Connor Kimme and senior point guard Marshawn Cocroft netting 22 of his game-high 35 points in the second half, advanced to Tuesday’s 8 p.m. championship game against Yorkville Christian with a 67-50 triumph over the No. 4-seeded Cavaliers (8-3).

La Salle-Peru will play Plano at 6:30 p.m. in the third-place game.

Kaneland trailed 13-12 after the opening quarter, 32-27 at halftime and 43-40 with just over two minutes remaining in the third.

“La Salle-Peru is a very good team. We won by 17, but the game was a lot closer than that,” Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe said. “I was very happy with how we came out and played in the second half. The first half, I mean L-P was 8-2 coming in, and they have some good players that made plays and shots.

“We had to try different things to try and stop them, and we were finally able to to that a few times there at the end of the third quarter. We held them to one shot during that run and turned a couple turnovers into points on the offensive end.”

Consecutive triples by Kimme in the early stages of the third kept the score tight before a pair of free throws by Cocroft started the Kaneland burst. Cocroft added a pair of nifty drives to close out the third and hit two free tosses to begin the fourth before Kimme connected from the left corner to give the Knights a 54-43 advantage.

“We went into the locker room down, but we were all very motivated,” said Kimme, who finished with 11 points, all in the final two periods. “We not only wanted to get back into a third championship game here, but we also want to win our third in a row. I feel we all knew we could play better in the second half, and we did.

“Coach Colombe talked at halftime about winning every four-minute segment, nothing more. I just feel like our defense really picked up, we started working the ball inside, and that led to good shots. We just did a good job of creating for each other, and everyone stepped up when they were counted on. We just executed better in the second half, especially during that run.”

“Connor has always been a good shooter for us, and we have all the confidence in the world when he puts a shot up,” Colombe said. “He had a couple of keys 3s for in the second half.”

Cocroft, who was 12-of-21 shooting including 4-of-8 from beyond the arc, also had six rebounds and three assists. The Knights also received 11 points, 13 rebounds and five blocks from 6-foot-9 junior Jeffrey Hassan and 10 points and seven rebounds from senior Isaiah Gipson.

Kaneland hit 25-of-53 (47%) shots from the floor, including 7-of-24 from the arc, and held a 35-25 rebounding margin.

La Salle-Peru was led by sophomore Marion Persich’s 19-point, 10-rebound, three-steal performance, while senior Erick Sotelo added 17 points, including four treys, and four rebounds. Jameson Hill chipped in nine points and three rebounds.

The Cavaliers - which had meshed 61% of their shots in the opening two games of the tournament, made 21-of-59 (36%) against the Knights.

“Kaneland is a very good team. I can’t fault my guys’ effort tonight, they gave it everything they had,” La Salle-Peru coach John Senica said. “I feel like with about two minutes to go in the third quarter, we were out of gas. We just didn’t have the energy to get out on their 3-point shooters, and Cocroft was able to get into the lane and either score or kick it out, which hurt us as well.

“We were right in the game up until that stretch (at the end of the third and start of the fourth) where we couldn’t score. They’d hit a 3, then we’d miss a shot or turn the ball over.

“You can’t take even one possession off defensively against (Kaneland), and we eventually just wore down.”