A big key to the success of Kaneland’s Marshawn Cocroft is his lightning-quick first step.
The senior guard knows he can do it. He shows it almost every night.
He just can’t quite explain how he does it.
“I really don’t know myself,” Cocroft said with a smile. “My teammates tell me I’m fast. Maybe it’s because I’m the one doing it, but I know I have the ability to do that.”
Eleven times against the host Rockets in the Class 3A Burlington Central Regional championship game, Cocroft took the ball from the top of the key, drove the lane and scored Friday night.
Every time the Knights needed a basket, there was Cocroft blowing past somebody. That led to a 30-point effort on 12-for-16 shooting for the Grand Valley State recruit in a 70-52 victory.
Cocroft was flanked by Jeffrey Hassan on the interior for Kaneland (32-0), which advanced to a 7 p.m. Tuesday semifinal in the Woodstock North Sectional against Rockford East. Hassan finished with 11 points, 13 rebounds and three blocked shots. Isaiah Gipson added 16 points off the bench.
Patrick Magan paced the Rockets (19-13) with 14 points. Ryan Carpenter added 12.
A former guard himself, Burlington Central coach Brett Porto tried to prepare his team for Cocroft. But Porto knows that no matter how much he shows it on video, it’s different in real-time action.
“We knew that was going to be a big issue for us,” Porto said. “We’re still really young. We have a lot of guys growing that aren’t fully mature like their team is.
“It was going to be tough no matter what coverage we put in. Showing it on film and explaining it to them, until they go out there and do it, it’s a different thing.”
What stands out to Kaneland coach Ernie Colombe about Cocroft’s ability to quickly get downhill and make things happen is how he switches things up.
That’s where all the behind-the-scenes work Cocroft does comes to the forefront.
“He’s got a quick first step, but he can also change directions on a dime,” Colombe said. “He’s such a good ball-handler. He can get you going one way, stop, and he’s going the other way and you’re still trying to recover.”
Cocroft also takes great pride in that aspect.
“Mix it up to make sure that I’m unpredictable with my moves,” he said. “I use my speed, switch speeds every time, whether it’s full court or a half-court set. I make sure to do that.”
The Knights, who are 63-1 in the past 64 games dating back to the start of last season, did get all they could handle from Burlington Central. A layup by Joseph Cumpata to begin the fourth quarter cut the deficit to 49-46.
Cocroft had seen enough.
“Even my teammates, they’ll say, ‘Let’s go Marshawn. This is your time. This is where you eat,’” Cocroft said. “I knew that myself. I knew that we needed a basket to get us going and I did it.
“We just went on from there.”
What Cocroft did — what else? — was drive to the basket on the next possession.
Hassan followed with a dunk. Gipson then had a steal, layup and free throw. Cocroft came up with two more driving layups to end the 11-0 run, putting the game away.
“We just knew they went on a run,” Cocroft said. “We knew that could happen. My teammates told me this is my time. This is when I take over as the point guard, control the game, calm us down.”
Colombe, for one, is happy to have Cocroft on his side.
“He’s a dynamic offensive player and he had it going,” Colombe said. “We were able to get him into some matchups that we were working so we stuck with it.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
