Rivalry night sets the stage for 50th Annual Colmone Classic

SPRING VALLEY – In the 50 years that the storied Colmone Classic has been held at Hall High School, there have been few opening nights more anticipated than the 2024 tournament.

Saturday night was rivalry night with Princeton playing Bureau Valley and Hall taking on St. Bede. It is the only time each set of rivals are scheduled to play this season and brought a large house to watch.

The Tigers made the most of the opportunity, defeating the rival Storm 56-49, while the Red Devils beat the Bruins 59-49 in the nightcap.

“The kids like playing in games like that. Kind of had the overflow of the Princeton-Bureau Valley crowd when our game started,” Hall coach Mike Filippini said. “Our kids and St. Bede kids like to play each other. It’s fun for the kids and we’re supposed to be doing that for the kids. It worked out well with three good games.”

Princeton senior Noah LaPorte was grateful to get to play the Storm one more time.

“After hearing that we were not going to play, I felt like and everyone knew that was going to happen and eventually we’d meet up and it did. We got that best of the them and it was a great win,” he said.

In earlier games, Mendota beat Putnam County 65-30 and L-P defeated IVC 53-47 in overtime.

The tournament continues Monday night with three games featuring Fieldcrest vs. Bureau Valley at 5 p.m., Eureka vs. St. Bede at 6:30 p.m. and Rock Falls vs. Putnam County at 8 p.m.

Princeton 56, Bureau Valley 49: The Tigers took their biggest lead of the night at 46-33 late in the third quarter with Gavin Lanham scoring on a runout and LaPorte converting a three-point play.

Bryce Helms hit back-to-back 3-pointers to end the third quarter and opened the fourth with a layup when he pump-faked the Tigers’ LaPorte off his feet to draw the Storm within 46-41.

They would get no closer with the Tigers outscoring the Storm 10-8 the rest of the way.

Tigers coach Jason Smith couldn’t exactly put his finger on the key to the win.

“They missed shots. We made shots. We had a couple of transition full-court layups that helped us out. Usually I can tell you like this happened at this point, and this happened at that point – today was really a blur,” Smith said.

It was just eight days ago the Tigers coach lost his older brother, Dave Camp, to a car accident, but he could feel his presence at the game.

“He’d tell me good win and move on. He wouldn’t give me too much praise, but I know he’d be proud of me,” Smith said.

LaPorte said it was just a good team win.

“I think effort and communication. Just playing with one another. We’re relying on one another. ... We’re not relying on anything else,” he said. “We’re not going solo, stuff like that. We’re staying disciplined, talking. It showed and we got it done.”

Jordan Reinhardt (20) and LaPorte (19) combined for 31 points for Princeton (3-3).

Endress led the Storm (4-2) with 21 points, 13 in the first quarter to carry BV to an early 17-15 edge. Bryce Helms added 12.

BV coach Jason Marquis and Smith, who previously coached under Marquis at BV and served as interim head coach for a season, were excited to play one another.

“It’s good for our kids to experience that. Thankful for Hall to give us the opportunity,” Marquis said.

“It’s a good county rivalry. It really is. It’s nice that they set us up like that this year. It’s always fun to play them. Coach Marquis always has them ready to play,” Smith said.

Hall 59, St. Bede 49: Filippini and St. Bede counterpart Brian Hanson met in the hallway coming out for the second half, agreeing on the lackluster play, with the Red Devils leading 19-16.

“It was not exactly great basketball, but we found a way to win,” Filippini said. “We didn’t play our best and I don’t think St. Bede played their best either. We told them we’re proud of their effort and good teams find ways to win when they don’t play well. We made enough plays to win the game.”

“I felt bad for the fans. We kind of set basketball back there that first half,” Hanson said. “That wasn’t pretty, but both teams were fighting.”

The Red Devils used a 12-0 run through the fourth quarter, largely from the free-throw line (12 of 13), to pull away to the 10-point victory.

Hall made 13 of 17 attempts from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter, 16 of 25 overall, while St. Bede came in at 50% (10 of 20).

“We finally started taking the ball to the basket. That was an emphasis game-long,” Filippini said. “St. Bede doesn’t have a shot blocker, they’re small like us. We didn’t follow the game plan in the first half, but I thought we did in the second half. Seemed like Wyatt got fouled every time he took the ball to the basket and he’s a great free-throw shooter. He basically fouled out two of their kids just by being aggressive.”

Wyatt West led the Red Devils (4-2) with 20 points, making 4 of 5 free throws down the stretch, Also for Hall, Greyson Bickett had 12 points while Luke Bryant and Noah Plym added nine each.

For the Bruins (3-4), Kaden Nauman had 12 points and Halden Hueneburg added 11.

Mendota 65, Putnam County 30: Freshman Cole Tillman (19) and junior Dean Doyle (15) combined for 34 points as the Trojans (4-0) rolled to an opening-night victory. They led 48-17 at the half.

For PC (1-6), Jaden Stoddard had six points and Traxton Mattingly added five.

L-P 53, IVC 47 (OT): IVC’s Cole Yates hit a late 3-pointer to tie the game at 41 and send it into overtime, but the Grey Ghosts couldn’t catch the Cavaliers in the extra four minutes of play as L-P held a 12-6 advantage.

Mario Persich led L-P (3-3) with 16 points and Mikey Hartman added 12.

Yates, Brady Ward and Ethan Dickinson each scored eight points for the Grey Ghosts.

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