Princeton falls to Kewanee with ‘lackluster’ effort

The Princeton Tigers played like they wished the calendar hadn’t turned to the New Year.

The Tigers (8-7, 2-1) came out with the holiday blues in their first game of 2022, and turned in what coach Jason Smith called a “lackluster” effort, falling to the Kewanee Boilermakers 50-40 in Three Rivers Conference East Division play Tuesday night at Prouty Gym.

While they may have lost by only 10 points, the game was much more lopsided than the final score with the Tigers falling behind 12 points in the first half and as much as 17 points in the second half.

“We didn’t play with any energy tonight,” Smith said. “Not to take anything away from Kewanee because they’re a good athletic group of basketball players. We just came out flat with zero energy. Couldn’t make a shot. Tried to do some different things to create some energy.

“We looked a little lackluster. Maybe a little disinterested at times. It’s my job to get them focused back up and it starts tomorrow in practice.”

The Boilermakers (8-7, 2-0) scored the first nine points of the game and the last nine points of the first quarter to take an 18-4 lead. Senior Nike Powe had half of the Boilers’ 19 markers.

The Tigers fell behind 24-12 midway through the second quarter. Kaden Monroe hit a 10-foot jumper from the right baseline, his brother, Kolten, scored on a reverse layup and Grady Thompson hooped with 2:04 left in the first half to bring the Tigers within 24-18.

Teegan Davis followed with 3-pointer from the right-corner to make it 26-21, but Brady Clark scored to close out the half for an 28-21 Boilers lead.

“Having a fast start definitely helped, getting up 18-4 at the end of one I thought it was our most complete quarter of the season,”Kewanee coach Matt Clark said. “Princeton being such a good team we knew they would make a run, which they did in the second quarter to cut the lead to seven at half.”

Kewanee put the game away with a 10-0 burst early in the third quarter, using 3-pointers by Will Bruno and Clark, and a pair of free throws by Powe to grab a 38-23 lead.

Blaise Lewis, son of the late Kewanee coach, Shaune, hit a 3-pointer from deep in the corner and Powe put the nail in the coffin with another deep trey from the top to beat the buzzer to make it 46-29 at quarter’s end. Kewanee made 4-of-6 3-point shots in the third quarter.

Both coach Clark and Powe praised the Boilermakers’ defensive effort Tuesday.

“I thought our defensive energy was key for us. We know Princeton has a very talented team and we needed to raise our level of play to match that,” Clark said.

“Our defense definitely won the game tonight,” Powe said. “We played good defense. Held them to 40 points. Our goal was to keep them under 60, 59 and below. Then we got to halftime, I think they had 21. And like, ‘We’re going to keep them less then 40, 39. We went out and played a good third quarter and we were able to get that in the fourth quarter.

Powe, who is also a football standout, also knows how to play a little offense. He recently went over the 1,000-point career mark and added to his career mark with a game-high 21 Tuesday.

“The team’s finding me. We’re all making shots tonight,” said Powe, who has applied to a few colleges and plans to study biology. “Will [Bruno] had [a 3-pointer], Brady [Clark] had one, big James [Conner] had one. Doesn’t really get much better than that. Everybody making shots. Doesn’t happen very often for us.”

The Tigers turned a 17-point deficit into 10 with Brady Byers scoring twice and Jack Bauer kissing a 3-pointer off the glass to close the final margin to 50-40.

“Their 13 (1-3-1) zone was effective against us. Hats off to them for winning. We just got to get better, starting tomorrow,” Smith said.

Davis led the Tigers with 11 points with Thompson adding nine and Kolten Monroe seven.

• Notes: Princeton salvaged the sophomore game as the Kittens rolled to a 51-28 victory. Bennett Williams led the Kittens (10-4, 2-0) with 12 points with Daniel Sousa adding nine, Tyson Phillips eight and Andrew Peacock seven. ... Princeton is scheduled to play at Mendota on Friday night. However, Mendota has canceled games Monday and Tuesday due to COVID-19 protocols and Friday’s game is up in the air.