Asa Gartin’s 11 fourth-quarter points spark Princeton to 60-46 win over Newman

PRINCETON - The Princeton Tigers have been looking for a third scorer in support of top guns Noah LaPorte and Jordan Reinhardt.

On Friday they found one.

Senior Asa Gartin scored 13 points, 11 in the fourth quarter, to spark the Tigers to a 60-46 win over Sterling Newman in Three Rivers East play at Prouty Gym.

LaPorte said Gartin is kind of a secret weapon.

“Asa’s a big contributor. A lot of people overlook him as a scorer. Nobody really knew about him. He can score the rock, and it’s great having that,” he said.

LaPorte scored a game-high 21 points and Reinhardt added 17.

The Comets (13-11, 2-3) scored first in the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer by Cody McBride to pull within 40-37. Then Gartin and the Tigers (9-11, 4-2) went to work.

Gartin scored in the post on an assist from Gavin Lanham and then flipped a pass to Lanham for a score to make it 44-37.

The Tigers senior forward was just warming up. He scored four straight layups on the back side of the Tigers’ zone offense, capped with a three-point play with a free throw and a 53-44 lead with about 2:30 left to play.

“So what we noticed in the game was the bottom guy on the 1-3-1 was on Noah’s side the entire time because he’s one of the biggest threats on our team. And that allowed me to cut to the basket where they passed it to me and I scored,” Gartin said.

“Trusting each other was the main reason why we scored, so I give credit to the team and most importantly God.”

LaPorte said it worked like a charm for the Tigers.

“They were over playing the corner here and Asa was wide open on the backside,” he said. “First half we were playing their pace, and second half we got to play at our pace and obviously it worked out and took the lead real quick and [we] didn’t look back from there.”

Newman coach Ray Sharp said the Comets were too concerned about Reinhardt’s 3-point shooting even though he had just one in the game and didn’t defend the paint.

“They made one 3 all night and yet we were more worried about that than a layup,” he said. “So, we’re giving up a layup instead of covering the block and closing out on the 3. We’ve got to do a better job understanding what’s going on in the game. We don’t want to give up layups. They were patient on offense and they just executed and got the layup.

“Once we got down, I thought we started to force it a little bit. When that happens, your players try to do it themselves and then we weren’t executing too well ,and then I thought we rushed our shots.”

Tiger coach Jason Smith said Reinhardt is a threat from the outside even when he’s not getting open looks.

“Jordan does that for us. That’s why we put him in that spot,” he said. “He creates some opportunities for everybody else even when he doesn’t get some open looks. He’s not selfish by any means. He will dish when he sees somebody open and Noah’s the same way. That’s why Asa hd 13 points because we shared the ball so well.

“Credit Asa for finishing a lot better in the second. If he had finished the first half he would have had 30 points probably. He didn’t get down, kept his head up.”

The Tigers scored seven more unanswered points, including a layup by Jayden Fulkerson on a half-court inbounds play and four free throws by Reinhardt to go up 60-44 with 20.2 seconds left.

“It really wasn’t adjustments we made really, it was reminders. And we needed to be reminded how to beat the 1-3-1 zone trap,” Smith said. “We did some things in the first half. Saw what we liked and what we didn’t like. Went back to the traditional way of breaking it in the second half, and I think the kids were just more comfortable with it and did well with it.”

Newman’s Evan Bushman hit a 3 to tie the game at 30 early in the third quarter. The Tigers scored eight straight with Reinhardt scoring on a runner in the lane and connecting with LaPorte for an alley-oop to go up 36-31 with 1:56 left in the third. LaPorte scored twice more in the post to send the Tigers to a 40-34 lead at quarter’s end.

George Jungerman led the Comets with 20 points and John Rowzee added 10.

Princeton rallied from 15 down at half to win the JV game 38-33. Luke LaPorte had 10 points.