Noah LaPorte’s 18-point third quarter carries Princeton past La Salle-Peru

OTTAWA – La Salle-Peru couldn’t find a way to stop Princeton senior Noah LaPorte from scoring in the odd-numbered quarters, and the Cavaliers couldn’t find a way to put the ball in the basket in the even-numbered ones.

Both were heavy reasons for the Tigers’ 51-46, pool-play finale victory Friday evening over La Salle-Peru in Ottawa’s Dean Riley Shootin’ the Rock Thanksgiving Tournament, a win that along with its higher free throw percentage for the tournament sent Princeton to Saturday’s 3 p.m. third-place game against old NCIC rival Sterling.

The Cavaliers will play immediately prior to that in the 1:30 p.m. fifth-place game against former Interstate 8 Conference rival Plano.

LaPorte scored 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the opening quarter, was held without a single shot attempt in a second quarter that ended in a 24-24 tie, then poured in 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting (plus 4-of-5 from the free throw line) in a third period that saw the Tigers take the lead for good. The 6-6 Northwestern football commit added a pair of key free throws in the fourth to finish with a game-high 32 points on 12-of-15 shooting, including 2-for-2 from 3-point range.

“Coming out of halftime, those first couple possessions [of the third quarter] kind of set the tone for the rest of the game,” LaPorte said. “What’s better than to get a few and-1s, a few buckets and fire up the rest of the team to finish the game strong?”

While LaPorte was scoring at will for the Tigers (1-2) in the first and third quarters, La Salle-Peru (1-2) had trouble coming up with responses in the second and fourth. L-P – which shot 36.1% from the field for the night – was a combined 7-of-28 in the second and fourth quarters, its 3-of-16 shooting in the fourth preventing the culmination of its multiple comeback attempts.

“We had kids tired from the first game [L-P’s 50-38 win over Oak Forest earlier Friday], and you could tell in the third, fourth quarter how all of our shots were long or short,” Cavaliers coach John Senica said. “That’s telling me we were out of gas, playing two games today. ...

“We kind of got out of our offense and what we wanted to do [in the fourth quarter]. We still got our shots, we just couldn’t make them when we needed them to fall.”

The Cavaliers drew as close as three points, 49-46, in the closing minutes of the fourth quarter when a Nick Olivero layup was goaltended by LaPorte. L-P scored no more, however, and three Jordan Reinhardt free throws over the final 21.1 seconds proved enough to pull away.

“We got off to good start. I think that’s important for us,” Princeton coach Jason Smith said. “I thought we played a lot smoother, got our legs under us. I don’t know why it took a back-to-back game on the same day [Princeton lost 50-32 to pool champion Streator early Friday] to do it, but it was nice to see. ...

“I wouldn’t want to be any other place. This tournament is great for us, it’s great for our postseason, the atmosphere in this gym is a great thing to be a part of.”

Olivero with 16 points and two blocked shots, Mikey Hartman with 11 points, Erick Sotelo with 10 points and four assists and Marion Persich with six points and a game-high 11 rebounds paced the Cavaliers.

For Princeton, LaPorte’s 32 points and five rebounds were both team-highs, with Reinhardt scoring seven points and Luke Smith chipping in six. As a team, Princeton shot 44.7% from the field and committed only seven turnovers, both helping to offset a 29-23 deficit in rebounding.

Streator will play Ottawa – also 3-0 – for the championship at 4:30 p.m.