Strong Bureau County lineup for Saturday’s Colmone Classic finals

Bureau County fans were treated to a strong local flavor with four straight games to tip off the final day of the 50th Annual Colmone ClassicHall High School on Saturday.

Bureau Valley defeated Putnam County 65-35 for 11th place, St. Bede lost to IVC 66-55 for 10th place, Princeton fell to Mendota 58-56 in the seventh-place game and Hall lost to Kewanee 54-43 in the fifth-place game.

Rock Falls beat Eureka 60-53 for third place while Fieldcrest repeated as champions with a 48-38 win over L-P.

Hall captured the JV championship, defeating Kewanee Hall 51-41.

Bureau Valley 65, Putnam County 35 (11th place): The Storm (5-4) earned their first win of the tournament to secure 11th-place in the first game of the day.

BV led 32-17 at the half and 50-23 after three quarters.

“Today’s game was a good day for our boys in blue,” BV coach Jason Marquis said. “We struggled a little bit early but got back to some of the things we’ve done well in the second third and fourth quarter. Nice for our kids to see that little bit of resolve and I thought we executed some things well that haven’t been great the last few games.”

Eleven different players dotted the scorebook for the Storm, including Landon Hulsing (11), Bryce Helms (10) Landen Birdsley (10), Logan Philhower (seven), Blake Foster (seven) and Brad Schoff (seven).

For PC, Bickerman had 11 points, AJ Furar had eight points and Miles Main and Jaden Stoddard each had six points.

It was the Storm’s second win over the Panthers this season, having also met the Wally Keller Invite at Wethersfield.

IVC 66, St. Bede 55 (ninth place): The Grey Ghosts outscored the Bruins 20-14 in the second quarter to take a 34-26 lead at the half and 15-9 in the fourth quarter to seal the ninth-place game victory.

Gino Ferrari led the Bruins with 15 points, Halden Hueneburg had 12 points and Mason Ross chipped in eight points.

IVC placed three in double figures with Brady Ward (14), Tom Davis (11) and Ethan Dickenson (10)

Mendota 58, Princeton 56 (seventh place): Jordan Reinhardt, who hit a game-winning shot at the buzzer at Newman on Dec. 6, rimmed a 3-point shot in and out on an inbounds play as the horn expired and the Trojans held on for the win to claim seventh place.

Princeton senior Asa Gartin scored 11 of his game-high 24 points in the third quarter, sinking 8-of-8 free throw attempts. Reinhardt netted 16 points.

Freshman Cole Tillman led the Trojans (5-3) with 20 points and Cam Kelly (11) and Aden Tillman (nine) combined for 20 more.

“I thought we played well, we just didn’t execute down the stretch,” Princeton coach Jason Smith said.

Mendota coach Steve Wasmer said the Trojans had to overcome their slow start after falling behind six points at halftime.

“I thought we were really flat in the first half and came out with better energy in the second,” he said. “I gotta get my guys playing a little harder to start games...that’s on me. But it’s better to learn when it’s a win than a loss, like our other close games have been. Our seniors (Kelly and Freeman) fought like crazy in the fourth quarter, and that’s why it’s great to have them. We finally found a way to win a game in which we didn’t shoot well.”

The Tigers scored the last seven points of the second quarter to take a 6-point halftime lead. Reinhardt hit a 3-pointer to put the Tigers ahead and Gartin followed with a drive and Jayden Fulkerson added a steal and layup for a 32-26 halftime lead.

Princeton increased its lead to 47-40 after three quarters.

“Give Princeton a ton of credit. They battled their butts off without Noah (LaPorte) and I think our guys were a little surprised,” Wasmer said. “Jason has a great program and they aren’t going to run away and hide. We gotta play them again there with Noah on Friday and that’s gonna be a different animal.

The Tigers (3-6), who won their first tournament game by defeating Bureau Valley, dropped their last three following a foot injury to top scorer LaPorte.

Kewanee 54, Hall 53 (fifth place): Kolson Welgat made a steal and two free throws with 12.8 seconds left to seal the Boilermakers victory for fifth place.

Noah Plym hit a 3-pointer for Hall at the buzzer, but the Red Devils came up one point short

Catrelle Reed scored a game-high 24 points for the Boilermakers.

Wyatt West led the Red Devils with 15 points while Jack Jablonski and Braden Curran added 10 each.

Rock Falls 60, Eureka 53 (third place): The Rockets bounced back after Friday’s semifinal loss to defeat the Hornets for third place.

Kuitim Heald and Cole Mulnix had 13 points apiece to lead the Rockets while Ryken Howard added 11.

“It was great team victory, guys stepped up and filled their roles very well after a long hard fought week at Hall,” Rock Falls coach Zach Sandrock said. “Cole Mulnix has a great game for us in the paint and knocked down some big shots at the end.”

Jack Blunier led the Hornets with 17 points.