Boys Basketball: Ottawa, Streator win opening games at Dean Riley Shootin’ the Rock Thanksgiving Tournament

OTTAWA – The Ottawa and Streator boys basketball teams opened their respective seasons Monday with wins at the Dean Riley Shootin’ the Rock Thanksgiving Tournament at Kingman Gymnasium.

The Pirates defeated Princeton 59-31, while the Bulldogs topped Plano 62-43. Pontiac opened the night’s action by rolling to a 94-25 triumph over Marengo.

Ottawa 59, Princeton 31

Ottawa led 12-6 after the opening eight minutes as Pirates’ junior Aric Threadgill scored 10 points and grabbed five rebounds, while the Ottawa defense allowed Princeton only three field goal attempts and forced seven turnovers. The hosts opened the second on a 7-0 run, hoops from Keevon Peterson and Evan Snook, plus a 3-pointer by Cooper Knoll. The Tigers closed the gap with consecutive 3s by Tyson Phillips and Sean Maynard but trailed 21-12 at halftime.

“I thought we played hard and defensively we were fairly sound for a first game of a season. We didn’t give up very many uncontested shots.”

—  Mark Cooper, Ottawa boys basketball coach

Peterson sparked the hosts in the third quarter with three consecutive hoops, including a 3, while Tristan Finley and Owen Sanders added four points each to push the Pirates lead to 38-19 heading to the fourth.

“I thought we played hard and defensively. We were fairly sound for a first game of a season,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “We didn’t give up very many uncontested shots.

“We were in the right spots and had a good level of communication. On offense, I feel we were disjointed in the first half. We didn’t get into much of a flow in the first 16 minutes, but I felt like we did a better job moving, screening and cutting in the third quarter.”

Threadgill finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while Knoll had 10 points and three rebounds. Peterson scored nine points and Owen Sanders had eight points and four rebounds. Snook registered seven assists and three steals.

Phillips’s seven points paced Princeton, while Korte Lawson and Liam Swearingen had six points each. Luke Smith led the team with five rebounds.

“Some guys that maybe didn’t expect to get playing time got it with us missing a couple starters due to injuries,” said Princeton coach Jason Smith, who was without Jordan Reinhardt and Noah LaPorte. “We obviously would have put ourselves in a better position if we’d made a few more free throws (7 of 18), took care of the ball better (23 turnovers) and not given up 12 offensive rebounds in the first half. All the mistakes we made here in Game No. 1 are correctable ones.”

Streator 62, Plano 43

Streator led the Reapers 14-10 after the first quarter, then used a pair of 3-pointers from Landon Muntz and one each from Logan Aukland and Cade Peterson to help extend the advantage to 33-23 at the half.

[ Photos: Streator vs Pontiac boys basketball in the Dean Riley Shootin' The Rock Thanksgiving Tournament ]

Plano clawed back to within five (36-31) early in the third quarter after long-range shots from Waleed Johnson and Eric Cano, but a Peterson 3, four free throws from Christian Benning and a pair of buckets from Quinn Baker boosted the Bulldogs’ lead to 50-39 heading to the fourth.

“We had a nice burst there midway into the second quarter to extend our lead, then it seemed like every time Plano started to make a run back at us, we’d make a big play or hit a big shot.”

—  Beau Doty, Streator boys basketball coach

Aukland led Streator with a game-best 15 points and nine rebounds, while Baker had 13 points and game-high 11 rebounds. Peterson posted 12 points and four rebounds, and Benning added 10 points and three rebounds.

“We did a great job of hitting shots in key situations,” Streator coach Beau Doty said. “Logan was outstanding, especially after Christian left the game early with a couple fouls and Quinn came in off the bench and gave us a huge lift with his presence in the paint. We feel like we have seven kids who could start for us, so we feel our depth is our strength. I think we showed a little of that tonight.

“We had a nice burst there midway into the second quarter to extend our lead, then it seemed like every time Plano started to make a run back at us, we’d make a big play or hit a big shot.”

Davione Stamps led Plano with 11 points and five rebounds, while Isaiah Martinez had seven points, five rebounds and a pair of blocks.

“We are a raw team, and there really isn’t any easy answers,” Plano coach Kyle Kee said. “It’s going to take us some time to figure out the team that we are. We were very out of sync right from the start and never really got on track. We want to play a pressure defense, but we can’t foul like we did tonight. We are going to have to figure out how to guard opponents like we want without putting them on the free throw line.

“We made a couple runs at them after they extended things in the second quarter, but they just always seemed to keep us from fully getting back in it. They shot pretty well from the perimeter for a first game.”