Boys basketball: Princeton beats Marquette, advances to Colmone final vs. Pontiac

What does Grady Thompson expect Saturday in the Colmone Classic championship?

“A win,” the Princeton senior said. “That’s what we want. That’s what we’re here for.”

The Tigers will look to repeat as Colmone champions when they square off with Pontiac at 7:30 p.m.

Princeton routed Pontiac by 26 points in the title game at Ottawa’s Dean Riley “Shootin’ the Rock” Thanksgiving Tournament.

“It’s going to be a hard-fought game,” Princeton coach Jason Smith said. “We’ve seen Pontiac before, and they’re going to be coming after us. We’re going to have our work cut out for us.”

Princeton advanced to the title game with a 74-50 win over Marquette on Friday, while the Indians reached the final with a 78-58 win over Putnam County.

Also Friday, La Salle-Peru defeated Rock Falls 60-48.

Saturday’s schedule starts with St. Bede vs. Bureau Valley in the 11-place game at noon, followed by Mendota vs. Hall for ninth, Fieldcrest vs. Rock Falls for seventh, L-P vs. Stillman Valley for fifth and Putnam County vs. Marquette for third.

Princeton 74, Marquette 50

The Tigers had a new starting lineup, as transfer Korte Lawson was available to play for the first time this season. He made an immediate impact with a bucket on the Tigers’ first possession.

Marquette’s Tommy Durdan drained a 3-pointer to give the Crusaders a 3-2 lead, but Teegan Davis responded with a 3 of his own for Princeton, and the Tigers led the rest of the way.

Princeton scored on its final eight possessions of the first quarter to build a 20-8 lead.

“That’s a very good basketball team, and coach [Todd] Hopkins does a nice job with that team,” Smith said. “To come out and have a start like we did, I thought, was very crucial, and we just maintained it from there on out.

“I thought our effort was high. I thought our defensive intensity was there all night. I was very happy with our performance overall.”

With backdoor cuts, flashes through the lane, penetration, 3-pointers and transition buckets, the Tigers continued to extend their lead.

Princeton led 39-21 at halftime and pushed their advantage to as many as 27 points in the third quarter.

Thompson finished with a game-high 26 points, while Davis scored 22. Lawson finished with six points and five assists in his debut. Tyson Phillips and Christian Rosario also had six points each.

“Our offensive execution was there all game long,” Smith said. “Of course, Grady and Teegan are always going to get theirs, because they’re around the basket all the time, but I thought guys like Christian Rosario and Tyson Phillips and Korte Lawson gave us a big lift.”

Durdan finished with 12 points for Marquette.

Pontiac 78, Putnam County 58

The Panthers got off to a strong start, with Jackson McDonald and Wyatt Grimshaw each scoring down low and hitting a pair of free throws to help PC take a an 8-2 lead.

PC later scored on four straight possessions to go up 17-9, but the Indians closed the first quarter on a 10-0 run to take a 19-17 lead.

“We started out real well,” PC coach Harold Fay said. “We had good movement on offense. I’m not blaming officiating, but there were some calls early on, and we weren’t able to finish. Then we just kind of stopped.

“Our movement stopped. Weak-side guards weren’t exchanging, and we just got into kick it down to the post, throw it out, shoot, and they shot us out of it.”

PC held its last lead at 23-21 with 4:55 left in the second quarter. Pontiac took a 33-28 lead into halftime.

The Indians put together a 12-2 run early in the third to build a 47-34 lead and extended their advantage to 60-43 by the end of the quarter.

“We stood and watched,” Fay said. “We got impatient on offense. They came out and scored right away to get it to seven. We got it down to three, then we just couldn’t get stops. We let them penetrate and kick, and we’d leave somebody open. We knew it was coming. It was exactly what we expected, but they were able to do a better job at it than us.”

McDonald scored 20 points for PC, while Austin Mattingly added 16.

La Salle-Peru 60, Rock Falls 48

Josh Sencia scored 27 points on 10-of-14 shooting while grabbing nine rebounds to lead the Cavaliers to a victory.

Seth Adams added 14 points for L-P, which led 21-8 after one quarter and 37-24 at halftime.