Boys basketball: Princeton routs Pontiac in Ottawa tournament championship

OTTAWA — The Princeton boys basketball team joined the Dean Riley Shootin’ the Rock Thanksgiving Tournament this season with a field that was more than half Class 3A teams.

With a strong core of players back and a strong supporting cast, the Tigers had little trouble with level of competition.

Princeton went 3-0 in pool play then rolled to a convincing 73-47 victory over Pontiac in the championship game Saturday.

“I think we played tremendously well,” said Princeton senior Grady Thompson, who poured in a game-high 26 points. “I think it tells us how good we can be going more into the season.

“It means a lot to us (to win the title). We came in here with a lot of bigger schools than we are. I think it shows others that the small towns are just as good, if not better.”

The Tigers took the lead at 4-2 on a bucket by Tyson Phillips on an assist from Teegan Davis with 6:33 left in the first quarter and Princeton led the rest of the way.

Princeton took its first double-digit lead at 23-13 when Bennett Williams cut to the basket and scored on an assist from Noah LaPorte.

“I thought our defense was tremendous throughout the whole tournament,” Princeton coach Jason Smith said. “We challenged our kids tonight (defensively) and I thnk we rose to the challenge.

“When we play together and play unselfish basketball like we did tonight, we’re going to be pretty hard to beat.”

Princeton pushed its lead to 35-18 on a layup by Thompson with 1:58 left in the first half and the Tigers held a 37-25 lead at the break.

The Tigers really got rolling midway through the third quarter.

Davis knocked down a pair of free throws before the Tigers forced three consecutive turnovers that led to points.

Phillips scored off a pass from LaPorte, Thompson threw down a dunk and Williams scored on an assist from LaPorte in transition.

After back-to-back misses by the Indians, Davis drove for a basket and LaPorte scored in the post, and after a scoreless possession by Princeton, Thompson knocked down a 3-pointer to cap a 15-0 run to extend the Tigers’ lead to 60-31.

“I think our defense and pushing the pace (were key to the run),” Smith said. “We talked about running good routes and running our secondary break. I thought Tyson Phillips did a nice job pushing the ball up court and getting it to our scorers like Grady, Noah and Teegan. Those guys ran great routes and we got the ball in the right hands and they made good decisions with the basketball.”

The Tigers led 63-34 after three quarters and put a running clock in place with a 30-point lead in the fourth.

“We kept them off the glass,” Williams said. “We had good closeouts to keep their shooters from getting easy shots. That was a big thing because they had a bunch of good shooters.”

Williams led a strong effort inside for Princeton, grabbing 10 rebounds as the Tigers outrebounded the Indians 34-21. Williams helped limit Pontiac forward Logan Barnett, who Smith said was “a beast rebounding the ball” to just four boards.

“We had to keep (Barnett) off the glass,” said Williams, who had a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds. “He’s an amazing player and if he got rebounds it was going right back out and they would score off it.”

Davis and LaPorte finished with 11 points each to give Princeton four double-digit scorers.