Princeton ‘competes,’ beats Riverdale 67-60

PRINCETON – Noah LaPorte and the Princeton Tigers couldn’t wait to get right back to work after losing to Dixon on Monday night.

Twenty-four hours later, the Tigers got their wish, playing more inspired basketball in a 67-60 victory over Riverdale.

The Tigers (10-12) outscored the visiting Rams (16-6) 11-2 over the last two minutes for the win.

“We came out flat last night, and that’s the biggest thing we took from that game,” LaPorte said. “It was great to have another game today to wash that one away yesterday and get better today.”

“Looks like we wanted to play basketball tonight,” Tigers coach Jason Smith said. “We used the word ‘competing’ in the pregame. I just wanted the guys to compete. Don’t be scared of the moment and go compete. And I thought we competed well tonight.

“Was the execution there fully? No. But it was there for the most part, and it was good enough to win. And that was a really good team. A well-coached Riverdale team and gives us some momentum going into Friday night [at Kewanee].”

Riverdale used an 11-4 run to open a 31-25 lead late in the second quarter. After LaPorte sank two free throws, he grabbed a rebound on the other end and made an outlet pass to a streaking Gavin Lanham for a layup to beat the buzzer to pull the Tigers within 31-29 at the half.

“That gave us confidence going into the second half, and we carried momentum over,” Smith said.

The Rams answered a quick Jayden Fulkerson hoop with six straight points early in the third quarter to grab a 39-33 lead.

The Tigers turned the tables with a 9-1 run, taking a 42-40 lead on a drive by Arthur Burden.

Princeton scored the final five points of the third quarter on a 3-pointer by junior forward Jackson Mason and a pair of free throws by LaPorte to go up 47-42 at quarter’s end.

Riverdale tied the game back up at 49 early in the fourth quarter on a putback by freshman Colton Clark and took its last lead at 58-56 on a steal and layup by senior Brody Clark with 2:18 to play.

LaPorte blocked a Riverdale shot, and Reinhardt cashed in with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put the Tigers ahead for good at 59-58 with 2:00 left to play.

“Noah had the big swat and I hit a 3 down here, and that just kind of took the momentum away,” Reinhardt said.

LaPorte made another key play with a tip and another outlet to Lanham for a basket and a 61-58 lead with 1:26 left.

Fulkerson stole the ball and passed to LaPorte, who was fouled and sank a pair of free throws to push the Tigers' lead to 63-58 with 23.8 seconds to play.

Colton Clark scored on a drive to make it 63-60, but the Rams ran out of time as Reinhardt made three of four free throws and LaPorte one of two.

“We still started a little slow, but we picked it up quickly, better than last night,” Reinhardt said. “I feel like we anticipated way better. Played way better on the defensive end, and we ran the floor well.

“That’s a great win. We’ll most likely see them down the road.”

Reinhardt finished with a game-high 21 points to lead the Tigers, with LaPorte scoring 18 and Lanham 14.

Riverdale also had a balanced attack, with Brody Clark leading the Rams with 16 points, Aris Morgan adding 13, Colton Clark 12 and Tegeler 10.

In the prelims, Princeton won the freshmen game while Riverdale won the JV contest 58-33. Brody Ross had 12 points for the PHS JV.