Cam Kelly hits late 3, Mendota beats E-P to clinch at least a share of TRC East title

MENDOTA - With less than a minute left, Mendota freshman Cole Tillman stole the ball and pushed it up court.

Mendota senior Cam Kelly caught a pass in the right corner and immediately launched a 3-pointer.

“We were pushing the ball in transition and I just got to the corner because I know they’ll find me,” Kelly said. “I want the ball at the end of the game.”

As Kelly’s shot soared through the air, he said he knew it was going in, and it did find the bottom of the net with 46.2 seconds left to give the Trojans a one-point lead.

“It felt amazing,” Kelly said. “I just heard everyone cheering and I knew that put us up one.”

Erie-Prophetstown’s Evan Steimle missed a 3, Tillman split a pair of free throws with 9.8 seconds left and E-P’s Connor Keegan and Keegan Winckler missed shots just before the buzzer as Mendota held on for a 53-51 victory in a Three Rivers Conference East Division game Friday on senior night.

“We trust our guys,” Mendota coach Steve Wasmer said about Kelly’s 3. “They had us scouted unbelievably. Every time we called something, they had an assistant coach jumping up, so running a set play wasn’t doing a whole lot of good. We just ran our motion offense and it got to the right guy. Cam’s going to make that. There’s something about the guy that he’s just cool under pressure. He’s not real up ever and not real down, just kind of even keeled, and those are the guys you want with the ball.”

With the win, the Trojans locked up at least a share of the conference title with the opportunity to win it outright Tuesday at Kewanee.

Mendota is 18-8 overall and 8-1 in TRC East play. Princeton sits in second at 6-2 in conference.

“A share of the conference at least is great,” Wasmer said. “Hopefully, we can take care of business next week and have it all to ourselves. It’s a huge step for the program. Our motto this year is next step and getting at least a share of the conference in a very good conference is a great step.”

The Trojans haven’t won a conference title in nearly three decades with time playing in the NCIC, Big Northern and now the Three Rivers East.

Wasmer said from his research Mendota’s last league title came in 1996.

“They love coming to work,” Wasmer said about what made this year’s Trojans the group to end the title drought. “I’ve never had a group where the practice attendance has been so good. They come to work, they buy in and they’re really good dudes. They play together.”

Early on Friday, it looked as if a conference title would be put on hold as the Panthers scored on eight of their first 10 possessions to take an 18-7 lead.

“We took care of the basketball,” E-P coach Ryan Winckler said. “We were able to spread the court and we did some good things. They weren’t as physical in the first quarter, then I’m sure they were challenged and that’s when the grabbing started, which limited a lot of the cuts and things that we’re able to do.”

After Steimle made a 3 to give E-P the 18-7 lead with 2:34 left in the first, the Panthers did not score again until Keegan hit a jumper with 4:22 left in the second.

“We didn’t get off to a good start,” Kelly said. “We missed a lot of people driving past us on defense and we didn’t rebound well at all. (Late in the first quarter), we started to get more ball pressure, we picked up our intensity and we started hitting shots.”

Mendota went on a 14-0 run, which senior Braiden Freeman started with a bucket off an assist from Dane Doyle, who drained a 3 during the surge.

Drew Becker gave Mendota another momentum boost with a three-point play off an assist from Tillman. The Trojans took their first lead at 19-18 on a driving basket by Alex Beetz with 6:45 left in the first half.

The game was close from there with eight lead changes and four ties as neither team led by more than four points.

Mendota led 28-26 at halftime as Freeman scored on a putback with one-tenth of a second left in the second, while the Panthers led 44-40 after three quarters after Max Milem drained a 3 with half a second left.

“I was proud of how our guys fought through,” Ryan Winckley said. “We got down and then came back and took the lead down the stretch. We did some really good things. I love how we keep improving every game. Hopefully, this is something we can learn from.”

Steimle scored a game-high 22 points for E-P (8-15, 3-6), while Keegan finished with 10 points.

Cole Tillman and Becker scored 13 points for the Trojans, while Kelly had 11 points.