Boys basketball: Ottawa leads from start to finish in win over rival L-P

LA SALLE – In the fifth-place game of its own Dean Riley Shootin’ the Rock Thanksgiving Tournament, the Ottawa boys basketball team lost by nine points to rival La Salle-Peru.

It was a much different story in the teams’ first Interstate 8 Conference game of the 2022-23 season.

The Pirates scored the first five points of the game and led the rest of the way as they pulled away for a 53-36 victory in L-P’s A.J. Sellett Gym.

“[We had better] ball movement,” Ottawa senior Levi Sheehan said. “At the Thanksgiving tournament, they were crashing really good on defense and getting their hands involved and everything. We had a lot of one more pass tonight. We were getting each other involved. Screens were good today.

“We just came in here with a better mentality than a fifth-place game at home in a tournament. Obviously, conference play is going to be harder.”

The teams were scoreless for more than three minutes to start the game until Sheehan scored on an assist from Aiden Mucci.

The Pirates added a 3-pointer by Cooper Knoll before L-P got on the board on a post basket by Josh Senica.

Ottawa led 9-7 after the first quarter but began to separate with back-to-back 3s by Payton Knoll and Sheehan to start the second.

The Pirates took their first double-digit lead at 17-7 on a bucket by Trace Roether with 4:46 left in the second and took a 29-16 lead into halftime.

“We were cutting hard and hitting the first cutter on our offense,” said Sheehan, who scored 17 points in the first half. “We were just playing solid defense and running our offense.”

The Pirates led by double digits throughout the second half and pushed their lead to as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter.

“We got off to a good start and we shot a little bit better tonight,” Ottawa coach Mark Cooper said. “It just happened to be our night. They didn’t shoot it as well as they’re capable of.”

The Pirates shot 45.2% from the field (19 of 42), including 46.7% (7 of 15) from 3-point range.

“When you’re trying to attack the rim with Senica in there, he lowers shooting percentages,” Cooper said. “Our big thing is, take good shots, and I thought the 3s that we took tonight were good 3s. Some nights you’re going to shoot them better than others, but as long as we’re taking the type of 3s that we want, we can live with the result.”

Sheehan led Ottawa (8-7, 5-1 Interstate 8) with 21 points, while Payton and Cooper Knoll had eight points each.

“Levi played well tonight, especially offensively,” Cooper said. “He shot well. He had the ball in his hands a lot tonight and he made a lot of good decisions.”

The Cavaliers shot 25% (12 of 48) from the field. Sencia led L-P (10-7, 2-3) with 14 points.

“We didn’t play our best,” L-P coach Jim Cherveny said. “Ottawa shot really well tonight. They made seven 3s. They hit some big shots, some timely shots. We missed a lot of easy shots around the rim, especially early in the game. You can’t give the ball back to a team like Ottawa and give them opportunities to score. They got out to a nice big lead at halftime and it’s just really hard to battle back.”

The Pirates, who have won two straight after a three-game losing streak, play Wednesday at home against Rochelle.

“Hopefully, we can build off this because we’ve had a stretch where we haven’t played very good basketball,” Cooper said. “I thought we were a little bit better tonight than we have been.”

L-P gets back on the court Saturday with a nonconference game at Mendota.