Boys basketball: L-P pulls away from rival Ottawa in second half

LA SALLE – For the first half Friday, the La Salle-Peru and Ottawa boys basketball teams were locked in a tight battle with neither team leading by more than five points.

But in the third quarter, the Cavaliers limited the Pirates to one free throw over a 6:22 stretch, and Jack Jereb drained three 3-pointers to help L-P pull away for a 53-29 Interstate 8 Conference win.

“We played good defense,” Jereb said. “The intensity was up. I had the hot hand in the second half and was feeling good. That’s the best we played in a while, I feel like.”

The Cavs led 13-12 after the first quarter and 22-19 at halftime.

Jereb knocked down a 3-pointer on L-P’s first possession of the third quarter for a 25-19 lead, which was the largest advantage of the game to that point.

Ottawa responded when Tristan Finley drove for a bucket with 6:38 left in the third, but the Pirates managed only a free throw by Huston Hart until Hart hit a runner with eight-tenths of a second left.

During that stretch, Jereb stayed hot from behind the arc with two more 3-pointers.

“We were just hitting shots, and our defense stopped them from scoring,” Jereb said about the third quarter. “I just had the hot hand. It can go to anyone on our team on any night. I just had the hot hand tonight, and my teammates were getting me the ball.”

Also during the run, Seth Adams fed Brendan Boudreau for a bucket, Adams scored on a layup on a long pass from Jereb off a rebound for L-P’s first double-digit lead at 32-22, and Adams scored on a runner with 16.5 seconds left for a 37-22 lead.

“Everybody was hitting their shots,” L-P coach John Senica said. “We were making really good passes and were being more patient on offense instead of just coming down and shooting the 3 right away. We had a lot of ball movement and had some nice, open shots.”

After allowing 12 points in the first quarter, the Cavs gave up only seven in the second and five in the third and fourth quarters as L-P allowed its lowest point total of the season.

“I thought our defense was pretty good,” Senica said. “I was impressed with [Cooper] Knoll and I was impressed with Hart because we put extra emphasis in practice this week on how we were going to defend them and they were still getting points.

“I ended up switching Josh [Senica] and Boudreau on Knoll. That kind of changed the game a little bit, because that gave us Josh in the paint a little more for rim protection. I think everybody picked up the intensity. We worked on that all week. We wanted to try to deny a little bit, help but not too much, to make sure we could still react to the 3. We did a lot of practice on defense this week.”

Jereb led all scorers with 18 points for L-P (13-5, 2-2 I8), while Mikey Hartman had nine points and Adams and Josh Senica added eight each.

“Jack had a great night,” John Senica said. “He’s a good shooter. Tonight we put a little more emphasis on making sure he got the ball because he had the hot hand. I was very impressed with his shooting tonight. He went to the basket strong and finished. He had a really great game. I’m proud of him.”

Knoll led the Pirates (7-7, 2-3) with 15 points, while Hart finished with 10.

“We didn’t rebound the ball well enough,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “We were minus 17 on the boards. We didn’t shoot the ball well enough to give ourselves a chance. We hung in there for a while, but their offensive rebounding in the second half and our inability to make a few shots ultimately led to the game being separated.

“They rebounded so well on the offensive end we didn’t have the opportunity to get out in transition at all, and then we were playing against their set defense. They scored off several offensive rebounds, so that was a big issue that we just didn’t have an answer for tonight.”