EDWARDSVILLE - Kaleb Turney is a junior forward for the Metro-East Lutheran boys basketball team, and he's made very valuable contributions to the Knights this season.
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Currently, Metro-East stands at 19-11. as the Knights have won their first two IHSA Class 1A playoff games, over Mt. Olive 65-18, and Raymond Lincolnwood 57-34, going into the Lincolnwood regional final on Feb. 28 against Hardin Calhoun. In the first two games, Turney had scored eight and five points, respectively, and for the season, averages 5.2 points and 2.8 rebounds-per-game, going along with 16 assists and 16 steals. He's valuable coming off the bench to help his team with a spark when they need it most.
He is a BJ's Printables Male Athlete of the Month for MELHS.
After the win over Mt. Olive on Feb. 24, felt very strong about his efforts, and how the team performed, going out to a big lead and not looking back.
"I'm feeling good," Turney said. "We came into this game thinking we were going to win, and that's what our mindset was throughout the game. We just came out, executed, and I think we played good overall tonight."
The Knights jumped out to a 29-5 first quarter lead against Mt. Olive, and never looked back in gaining the win.
"The first quarter was pretty fun," Turney said. "We came out, we just did what we normally do, and we won."
Going into the semifinal against the host Lancers, Turney felt confident in his team's chances in the semifinal to advance to the final.
"Our goal in postseason is to win everything," Turney said. "Our mindset throughout the year is to be the first team in MEL's history to make it to state, and that's what our mindset's been all year."
It has been a very good season in Knights Nation this year, and the team has built much momentum going into the postseason, especially after an upset win over Belleville Althoff Catholic, and playing a good game against Nashville to end the regular season.
"Our momentum after these last two games, we played a lot of big teams," Turney said, "and we fought throughout all of them. We got a couple of wins here and there, but I think we're all dialed in and locked in to get out of regionals this year."
Turney is feeling confident about the Knights' chances in this year's postseason run.
"Yeah, we're always confident," Turney said, "but we never have an ego going into anything, so we always stay humble, and just play our game."
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