Basketball notebook: Hall beats 3 rivals in 10 days

The Hall Red Devils had a memorable 10-day stretch when they beat rivals La Salle-Peru, St. Bede and Princeton in boys basketball.

It started with 55-54 nonconference win over the Cavs at home Dec. 3 followed by wins over the Bruins 59-49 (Dec. 4) and the Tigers 56-49 (Dec. 13) during Hall’s Colmone Classic.

“Too bad we couldn’t get Bureau Valley (Saturday). That could have topped it off. They’re a good team, too,” Hall coach Mike Filippini said.

Hall will get its shot to add Bureau Valley to that list Feb. 8 at home.

Hard to say if the Red Devils have ever defeated all three rivals in one season before. They have not always played the Bruins.

The 1996-97 Red Devils state team beat Princeton but lost to L-P, while the 1997-98 Red Devils beat the Cavs (49-27) and Tigers (67-38) in back-to-back days on the way to a 30-0 run to the state tournament but did not face the Bruins.

Colmone recap

The 50th annual Colmone Classic was another classic with tournament founder and namesake Frank Colmone in the house to present the awards and trophies.

Fieldcrest won its record 14th championship, defeating a school (La Salle-Peru) four times its size. The next closest winner is Hall with seven.

Colmone checked back over the 49 previous championship games, and no team had ever been shut out in a single quarter as L-P was 16-0 in the first quarter against Fieldcrest on Saturday.

Rock Falls senior Kuitim Heald set a record for most 3-pointers in a tournament with 17 and tied the record for most 3s in a tournament game with nine. The previous high for a tournament was 15, shared by Fieldcrest’s Nathan Ropp (2008) and Stark County’s Adam Parrott (2004), who also had nine in one game.

Hahn grounded in hoops history

Fieldcrest coach Jeremy Hahn is well grounded in the history of Toluca Wildcats basketball before its consolidation with Minonk-Dana-Rutland and Tonica to form the Fieldcrest district in 1992-93.

He grew up watching legendary Toluca coach Chuck Rolinski, who is one of the most successful coaches in state history with 649 wins (19th most at one school) from 1956-90 with five district championships, 12 regional titles and three sectional championships, and known as the founding father of the former two-class system in 1971-72.

“My grandfather was actually the president of the school board who hired Chuck [at Toluca],” Hahn said. “My dad was the scorekeeper for Chuck, and I remember for the longest time sitting with my dad at the scorer’s table watching Chuck coach and Ralph Hallam [of Mid-County], all of those great coaches in the central part of the state.”

Hahn carried that winning tradition with him as an assistant under former Fieldcrest coach Matt Winkler and now as the Knights’ head coach.

Walking wounded

Princeton limped through the end of the Colmone Classic with injuries to a pair of key players.

Senior Noah LaPorte went down in pain late in the first game against Bureau Valley on Dec. 7, returning to action to help the Tigers post a 56-49 win over the rival Storm.

He did not suit up the rest of the week, sporting a walking boot on his right foot. The Tigers subsequently lost all three games in his absence.

LaPorte said it was a sprained ankle with an old bone chip, and he hopes to be cleared Thursday.

Classmate Jayden Fulkerson went down with a foot injury in the Tigers’ final game Saturday against Mendota and reappeared later that evening with his foot wrapped up.

Storm, Tigers to host regionals

Bureau Valley and Princeton will host Class 2A boys regionals in the Marengo subsectional A, including Hall and Mendota.

DePue, LaMoille and St. Bede have been assigned to the Class 1A Pecatonica subsectional A with Amboy and Savanna West Carroll hosting regionals.

In Class 3A, La Salle-Peru will host a regional in subsectional B of the Washington Sectional.

Princeton will also host a Class 2A girls regional as part of the Rock Falls Sectional. No subsectional assignments have been released for the girls.