PHS’ Grady Thompson named Colmone Classic MVP

Princeton junior guard Grady Thompson was named as the Colmone Classic MVP.

He was joined by teammate Teegan Davis, Bureau Valley’s Carter Salisbury, St. Bede’s Paul Hart, L-P’s John Riva, Hall’s Drake Garland, Mendota’s Krew Bond, Marquette’s Tommy Durdan, Pontiac’s Kerr Bauman and Stillman Valley’s Evan Davidson.

Hart was the tournament scoring leader with 102 points, averaging 25 ppg as the Bruins went 3-1, placing ninth.

Thompson led the Tigers to the Colmone Classic title with 80 points (20.0 ppg), the second most in the tournament.

* 17th champion: Princeton, which joined the Colmone Classic in 2017-18, becomes the 17th different champion in the 47-year history of the Hall tournament. The Tigers are the first to do so with one loss in the tournament, having advanced by virtue of the pool tiebreaker for fewest points allowed.

The Tigers will seek to become the first team to repeat next year since Fieldcrest turned the trick in 2010-11.

* Last hurrah: Longtime Fieldcrest coach Matt Winkler, the Knights only coach in school history marked his final Colmone Classic appearance with a 61-53 loss to St. Bede in Saturday’s ninth-place game. He is retiring after this season.

Winkler’s Knights have won 12 Colmone Classic championship over the past 27 years, more than any other school in tournament history dating back to its start in 1974. They have also finished runner-up three times and third place three times, posting an overall 67-21 record (.761) as researched by Shaw Media’ Brian Hoxsey).

* Cavs enjoy Colmone debut: L-P coach Jim Cherveny, whose team battled Princeton to a 66-62 loss in Saturday’s championship game, said his team found out a lot about itself over the course of the tournament playing in it for the first time.

“We were excited to play in it, being a first-timer. I thought we started to mesh and gel really well. Even though we got beat tonight, we have a lot of positives to take away. We’ll get back to work and expand on those positive things and work on the areas we need to work on. I think our team still has a bright future.

“Gosh, we rattled five wins in a row before we lost tonight. It’s nothing we’re hanging our heads on. We just put it in our back pocket. We remember we’ve got to play these guys in a few weeks again over at their place. We’ll be ready. This isn’t a thing that’s going to set us back.”