September 07, 2024
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Boys basketball: Princeton’s puzzle comes together over time

By Kevin Hieronymus
The starting five of Grady Thompson (left), Teegan Davis, Kolten Monroe, Korte Lawson and Noah LaPorte have led the Princeton Tigers to the sectional finals. Surprisingly enough, none of them played at the junior high level, coming together at from different places and schools.

The starting five of Grady Thompson (left), Teegan Davis, Kolten Monroe, Korte Lawson and Noah LaPorte led the Princeton Tigers to the sectional finals. Surprisingly enough, none of them played together at the junior high level, entering PHS from different places and schools. (Photo contributed)

The best puzzles are the ones that take time and when they all fit together, it’s a work of art.

Such is the masterpiece called the 2022-23 Princeton Tigers basketball team.

The Tigers puzzle all started with the hiring of Jason Smith as head coach in 2019-20.

Now in his fourth season at the Tigers helm, he has guided the Tigers to back-to-back regional championships and a sectional final appearance. He has a remarkable 73-30 record at PHS, just posting his 100th career victory in the sectional semifinals, including a 27-5 regional championship in a one-year stint as interim head coach at Bureau Valley.

That same year, Teegan Davis, Grady Thompson, Christian Rosario, Brady Byers and Karter Patterson all entered Princeton High School as freshmen. They are now seniors.

Thompson and Rosario came via Princeton Christian Academy where they teamed up with the Hart brothers - Paul, the St. Bede all-time leading scorer, and Isaiah, a St. Bede junior and leading scorer. Imagine if PCA had a high school team?

Thompson, an All-State candidate, is a 3-point shooting, dunking star, while Rosario is a key sixth man and defensive stopper, never seeing a charge he didn’t like.

Davis had just moved back to Princeton at Christmas during his eighth grade year. He had attended lower elementary grades in Princeton before his family moved to the Bureau Valley district when his father, Spencer, became the Storm’s football coach.

The Davis family moved to the suburbs when he was in the sixth grade before returning to Princeton.

An All-State basketball candidate and dunking machine, Davis will play football for the University of Iowa this fall.

More pieces to the Tiger puzzle came together in 2020-21, though due to the pandemic, it took awhile to see them in action.

Evan Driscoll, Cayden Hanson, Landen Koning, Tyson Phillips, Jimmy Starkey, Daniel Sousa and Bennett Williams, now juniors, all entered PHS as freshmen. Kolten Monroe transferred to PHS as a sophomore along with his brother, Kaiden, who was a junior.

Monroe attended Princeton schools through the sixth grade, but moved to Milwaukee starting in seventh grade. The family moved back to the area when the boys grandmother, Sherry Kirk, became ill with cancer.

The final pieces of the Tiger puzzle came together last year when Korte Lawson transferred to PHS from Rockridge during his sophomore year and Noah LaPorte entered the program as a freshman.

Lawson had to sit out the 2021-22 season, but practiced with the team and then played over the summer. He took over as point guard on Dec. 9 and has been a key cog in the lineup since.

“Korte just gives us that added dimension of point guard,” Smith said. “You don’t have to worry about him handling the ball, so Grady and Teegan can both focus on flying down the floor and getting the ball. He might not score the points, but he’s an important guy on our team.”

LaPorte played for the freshmen team and made the leap to the varsity starting lineup this year, playing well beyond his youth, growing by leaps and bounds each game.

The Tigers gained a key wild card with the late addition of sophomore Jordan Reinhardt for the postseason. He contributed right away, scoring eight points with a pair of 3-pointers as the “zone buster” in the regional championship win over Stillman Valley.

Smith was not surprised to see the varsity take to Reinhardt so well.

“They all have high basketball IQs. They can probably learn to adapt with anybody,” he said. “Jordan comes in and he just fits in with everybody. It’s because of the character/IQ of these guys in learning to accept everybody whoever comes in and play with them at a high level.

“And I think it helps those guys after coming in and playing with those guys raises their level of play, too.”

It is interesting to think that none of this year’s starting five played together in the junior high. And they came together to have one of the best seasons ever at Princeton High School with a 32-3 record and a Sweet 16 finish.

Kevin Hieronymus has been the BCR Sports Editor since 1986. Contact him at khieronymus@bcrnews.com