In a battle of young teams Tuesday, Kewanee overcame an aggressive defensive effort from Dixon to post a 66-62 win in a nonconference clash between two former NCIC foes.

The Boilermakers (2-1) grabbed the lead with a 15-3 run over the final 4:01 of the second quarter, then fought off a Dixon surge with an 11-6 run over the closing 5:15 to pull out the victory.

“We just kept pushing, just talked about defense. We’ve got to work on some things, but the win is good,” Kewanee sophomore Christopher Crowe said. “I was nervous at the end because I thought I was going to mess it up, but we got it done. It feels good because it will keep pushing us to get more wins.”

Dixon (1-4) used a 15-2 run over the final 3:58 of the first quarter to take an 18-15 lead after one period, and stretched the margin to 22-17 on a Brody Nicklaus 3-pointer 1:35 into the second.

But Kewanee answered with its surge to close out the first half, and Crowe was a big part of it. After he hit three 3s in the Boilers’ 13-3 run to open the game, he had a couple more 3s and a pair of driving layups during the second quarter spurt. He scored 22 of his game-high 25 points in the first half on 8-for-10 shooting, including 5-for-6 from deep.

“That’s just what I do. That was kind of lucky, I’m not even going to lie. I usually don’t shoot like that, but I was feeling it, so I kept going,” Crowe said. “It feels amazing because usually that just doesn’t happen.”

Dixon stayed close with defense and rebounding. The Dukes scored 15 points off of 17 steals while forcing 27 turnovers, and they turned 22 offensive rebounds into 23 second-chance points.

“We just have to go hard at them and give that effort,” Nicklaus said. “We did a good job, we had very good spurts, but we’ve just got to have an all-around game, not just spurts.”

“Our coaches definitely want us to have four people at the basket rebounding, and that’s what we did tonight,” sophomore Armahn McGowan said. “We put in a lot of work in practice, and I feel like that translates to the game. Now we have to put in even more work because we can definitely do better.”

Dixon took 24 more shots than Kewanee, but the Boilers made theirs count by shooting 54 percent (25-for-46) from the field and 47 percent (8-for-17) from 3-point range. The Dukes, on the other hand, shot 34 percent (24-for-70) – and just 17.6 percent (6-for-34) from deep.

The Dukes erased a 47-41 deficit and took a 56-55 lead on a Nicklaus 3 with 6:38 to play, but Kewanee retook the lead and stretched it to 64-58 on Crowe’s three-point play with 2:14 remaining.

Nicklaus’ final 3 off an offensive rebound by Xavion Jones cut the deficit to 64-62 with 35 seconds left.

“It’s a learning experience, 100%,” Nicklaus said. “Game by game, our first tournament and then this game too, I feel like we’re getting better, and I think it’s coming together really well.”

Crowe missed two free throws with 13.5 seconds to go, only to get his own offensive rebound. Griffin Hicks was then fouled and made both free throws to stretch the lead back to four.

“The first two games, we have not shot the ball particularly well at all, and to see a few go in early, it just kind of trickled down,” Kewanee coach Dayton Ince said. “We’re super young as far as experience at the varsity level, so to come into this environment on the road and just keep putting one foot in front of the other and grind out a win is good progression for a young squad.”

Crowe finished with 25 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks for the Boilers and Dayvon Robinson added 13 points, five rebounds and two blocks. Jesus Martinez had 11 points, four rebounds, two assists and two blocks, Leeam Slover hit a pair of 3s and Hicks had six points and four rebounds. Logan Peed led the way with eight rebounds and three assists.

Nicklaus hit six 3s and led the Dukes with 24 points to go with two assists and two steals, while McGowan finished with nine points, 12 rebounds, four assists and four steals. Jones scored eight first half points and dished a pair of assists and Brady Feit (5 points) and Zander Wilson (4 points) each grabbed five rebounds. Jakob Nicklaus scored six points and Jimi Gosinski chipped in five steals and three assists.

“This game showed us that we’ve got to work hard, do the simple things we didn’t do this game,” McGowan said. “We have to do them next game, and that’s how we close it out.”