Kankakee put the finishing touches on a dominant week at the Reed-Custer Comet Classic with a 64-17 win over Wilmington in Friday’s championship game.

The Kays made quick work of their competition all week in Braidwood, winning all four games by an average margin of 46 points per game to start the season 4-0 for the second year in a row.

After Kankakee got out to a 16-0 lead, the shorthanded Wildcats (3-1), with just six players seeing the floor Friday, initially managed to keep things from getting too far out of hand by cutting the deficit to 18-6 by the end of the opening period.

But once the second quarter started, it was all Kankakee.

The Kays outscored Wilmington 30-0 in the second, taking a 48-6 lead into halftime and cruising to the win. Ava Johnson finished with a game-high 23 points.

“I feel like just running in transition was the key to the game,” she said. “And our defense too, that was a big part. We’re just really looking forward to the rest of the season so far.”

Kankakee recorded 16 steals and six blocks as a team, allowing them to frequently push the ball down the court.

London Stroud led the team with six steals while Ki’Asia Wilson and Shania Johnson grabbed three apiece.

“I think just getting down low on defense and being able to share the ball and run the ball out in transition, that gives us a lot of opportunities to score,” Wilson, who also had 12 points and five assists, said. “We get a lot of steals and deflections on defense.”

The Kays’ willingness to share the ball has allowed them to capitalize on many of turnovers they force, particularly on Friday where they had 22 assists as a team. They have reached double-digit assists in all four games this season.

Junior Malea Harrison, who finished second on the team with 15 points, also dished out a game-high 10 assists. She was named to the All-Tournament team along with Ava Johnson and Wilson.

“It’s a lot of unselfishness,” Harrison said of the team’s big assist numbers. “We like to share the ball, we like to get our teammates’ success and we like to just see everybody succeed.”

The Kays have a little break from game action during Thanksgiving week before getting Southland Athletic Conference play underway at Thornridge on Dec. 1, where they will try to get their search for a ninth straight top-three conference finish off to a strong start.

“We’ve got a couple days to get into the gym and work on some things that we identified, some weaknesses from this week, to be ready to go on Monday for Thornridge,” head coach Kurt Weight said. “It all moves pretty fast now.”

For Wilmington, Friday’s loss was a tough end to what was a solid opening week overall.

Guards Keeley Walsh, who was named to the All-Tournament team, and Nina Egizio were unavailable Friday, making what was already a tough matchup even tougher.

Still, Wilmington is off to a 3-1 start to the season, with the average margin in their three wins sitting at 23 points per game. Melia Hinckerick led the team with 10 points against Kankakee.

“The first three games this week, we showed what we’re capable of,” head coach Eric Dillon, in his ninth season in the role, said. “I’m really proud of the way the girls ended up. Coming out of this tournament in second place is huge. It’s the first time we’ve done it since I’ve been coaching. It’s a really great start to the season.”

Elsewhere in the Comet Classic, host Reed-Custer (3-1) picked up a 34-24 win over Coal City in the third-place game. Alyssa Wollenzien nearly stole her way to a double-double with 19 points and nine steals for the Comets. Kamryn Wilkey added seven points Harlie Liebermann had five points and six rebounds.

No individual stats were available for the Coalers (2-2).

Grace Christian (1-3) broke into the win column with a 37-22 win over Gardner-South Wilmington (0-4), getting 22 points from Zoey Baldridge and 13 points from Kaitlyn Jorgensen. Leah Olson had seven points for the Panthers while Maddie Simms and Kaylee Tousignant had six each.