Noah LaPorte, Princeton scorch Kewanee

PRINCETON - The Princeton Tigers and Kewanee Boilermakers have had a lot of knockdown, drag-out basketball battles in the past.

There were a pair of Boilermakers' wins (50-40, 72-67) in 2021-22 followed by a Tigers' 71-63 regional final showdown triumph that was much closer than the final score.

Last season, a 61-55 Tigers' win was followed by a 71-65 Boilermakers' win in overtime.

Tuesday’s game at Prouty Gym was not one of them.

The Tigers rode a 24-point night from big man Noah LaPorte, including four 3-point baskets, to a run away 60-21 win over their Three Rivers East rivals.

“That’s huge. Definitely weren’t expecting that big of a win, but it’s definitely nice to do that,” Princeton senior Jordan Reinhardt said. “I don’t think they like to play us, so it’s always fun to play.”

“Playing an archrival and playing the way we did on both ends of the floor and putting all four quarters together, something we haven’t done all year, was nice to see we can do that,” PHS coach Jason Smith said.

LaPorte scored the game’s first five points to stake the Tigers to an early lead. He then cashed in a lob pass and knocked down his first 3-pointer of the night to send the Tigers to a 12-6 edge.

Reinhardt hit a 2-pointer, then a 3-pointer and passed to Gavin Lanham on a back-door cut with four seconds left for a 19-8 lead at quarter’s end.

The Tigers and LaPorte were just warming up. He took the Tigers on a 10-0 run to open the second quarter.

LaPorte first scored on a hard drive from the left baseline. He buried a 3-pointer from the left wing and next time moved over to the right wing for another nothing-but-net trey.

Arthur Burden took an assist from LaPorte to cap the 10-0 run for a 29-8 Tigers lead.

LaPorte tried out the top of the key for his third 3-pointer of the second quarter, fourth for the night, to finish off a 21-point first-half outburst.

“I was impressed. I love it. Whenever he’s hot, that just makes it easier,” Reinhardt said of LaPorte. “He’s almost impossible to guard. Got to step back and hope he don’t drive, but when he shoots it you can’t really guard him.”

Smith, for one, was not surprised to see LaPorte step out and connect behind the arc.

“Everybody thinks he’s just an inside player,” Smith said. “I said, ‘Noah you’re a good shooter from the outside. Shoot the ball from the outside, it opens up the inside and good things are going to happen.' And he did.”

Jayden Fulkerson converted a steal and layup, and Luke Smith scored down the right baseline on an inbounds play to close out a 36-10 halftime lead for Princeton.

Smith said the Tigers (7-8) are putting things together nicely heading into the New Year, winners of four straight.

“We went on a five-game losing streak, now we’ve won four in a row. If we can win one Friday night (at Hall) we can get back to .500,” he said. “We’re not in our stride yet, but we’re hoping to be there shortly. That’d be a lot of momentum going into the postseason.

“We’ve got some good games on our schedule starting Friday night against Hall. They beat us, so we’ve got our work cut out. It’s at their place, so it’s always a tough place to play.”

Other scoring leaders for PHS were Reinhardt (nine points), Burden (seven) and Fulkerson (six).

Colson Welgat led Kewanee (9-8) with seven points, and Catrelle Reed added six.

Kewanee won the JV game 41-28. Jack Oester had nine points for the Kittens, and Hayden Sayler added eight.

Princeton won the freshmen game 50-46.