Boys basketball: Princeton avoids opening night slip at Colmone Classic

SPRING VALLEY - The Princeton Tigers lost their first game of the Colmone Classic a year ago and while they made their way back to become the first champion to ever win the tournament with one loss, they didn’t want to take that same path again.

They left no doubts in the 2022 tournament opener, pouncing on St. Bede for a 21-7 first quarter edge and a 43-15 halftime lead on the way to a 70-22 running clock victory Saturday at Hall High School.

Princeton coach Jason Smith said the Tigers never talked about last year’s 60-47 opening night stumble to Stillman Valley.

“Last year was last year. We just tried to focus on here,” he said. “We came out knowing we were defending champions and came out to play a big game. That’s their mindset right now. The loss (last year) was never brought up. If they need that motivation we’re in trouble.”

In other games Saturday, Marquette beat Mendota, 58-36, Fieldcrest beat Bureau Valley, 63-34, and Stillman Valley beat host Hall, 66-64.

Princeton 70, St Bede 22: It was all Tigers from start to finish. Noah LaPorte found the bank on a long 3-pointer to send the Tigers to a 21-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

A 3-pointer by Jimmy Starkey and 3-point play by Grady Thompson pushed the Tigers’ lead to 31-9 with 5:50 left in the second quarter and a drive at the buzzer by Thompson made it 43-15 at halftime.

A thundering dunk by LaPorte with six minutes left in the third quarter put the running clock in play with a 30-point (45-15) lead.

Everyone got in on the fun for the Tigers with Thompson scoring 14 points and LaPorte 13 while Teegan Davis, Tyson Phillips and Daniel Sousa each had eight. Ten of the 11 Tigers dressed scored.

“It was a balanced scoring night. I was happy with the contributions from everybody,” Smith said. “You know ... we’re a team. It takes everybody 1-15 to make that happen and I thought we did that tonight.”

John Brady led the Bruins (3-3) with six points.

Stillman Valley 66, Hall 64: Mac Resetich scored a game-high 40 points for Hall, but needed 42 as the Red Devils fell short in Saturday’s nightcap.

Austin Pecher, who scored nine points for Hall, buried a 3-pointer, pumping his fist as he tied the game at 47 with just under five minutes remaining. Freshman Braden Curran gave them a 59-57 lead.

Resetich got a spinner to drop, pulling Hall within one at 65-64 with 43.1 seconds left. Hall got another shot at the tie, down 66-64, calling time to set up a play for Resetich. He drove the lane, but had the ball stripped and recovered by the Cardinals as time ran out.

“It was just a great effort by our kids and told them how proud we are. I know we’re 2-4. Big deal. We got 100 times better from Tuesday night to Saturday,” Hall coach Mike Filippini said. “We’re not going to win the tournament, but we probably weren’t going to win anyway. The good news for us is we got a lot better and we got a lot of contributions from a lot of kids.”

Owen Dunseth (25) and Alex Rahn (24) combined for 49 points for Stillman Valley.

Marquette 58, Mendota 36: The Crusaders used a 17-0 run to close the third and open the fourth to pull away from the Trojans.

Rafa Romero and Izaiah Nunez scored 11 points each for Mendota.

Fieldcrest 63, Bureau Valley 34: The Knights jumped out to an 18-1 lead and never looked back. They led 40-15 at the half and 61-27 after three quarters.

BV coach Jason Marquis was disappointed in his team’s effort.

“Losing games stinks. Playing without effort is a lot more miserable. When you have to spend time coaching effort, it doesn’t leave ample opportunity to coach Xs and Os,” he said. “It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it. I’ve seen this group be resilient and fight back. I know somewhere down in the belly it exists. The effort needs to be consistent.”

For Fieldcrest, which played for the first time in the tournament without longtime coach Matt Winkler on the bench, Connor Reichman had 17 points and Parker Sidebottom had 10.

Sophomore Landon Hulsing led the Storm with 10 points.

Notes: The Colmone Classic action resumes with two games Monday with Bureau Valley facing Pontiac at 6 p.m. followed by L-P vs. Marquette at 7:30 p.m. The sophomores will return to action with crossover games Thursday with Mendota advancing to Friday’s semifinals.