L-P wins its pool at Colmone Classic

The pools are starting to take shape at the Colmone Classic.

La Salle-Peru won the White Pool with a 59-24 rout of Mendota on Tuesday.

The Cavaliers will play Red Pool winner Pontiac in the second semifinal at 8 p.m. Friday.

L-P edged the Indians in overtime in Ottawa’s Dean Riley Shootin’ The Rock Thanksgiving Tournament.

“I expect it to be our toughest game of the season,” L-P coach Jim Cherveny said. “They’re going to be ready to go. I know we’re going to be ready to go. I’m expecting a tough, physical game. I think it should be a good atmosphere and I think it’ll be a good game.”

Marquette finished second in the Red Pool after a 65-40 win over host Hall on Tuesday.

Princeton defeated St. Bede, 70-51, on Tuesday to finish 1-1 in the Gray Pool.

Pool play wraps up Wednesday with St. Bede (0-1) playing Stillman Valley (1-0) at 5 p.m. followed by Bureau Valley against Rock Falls and Mendota against Fieldcrest.

Stillman Valley will claim then Gray Pool with a win over St. Bede, while the Bureau Valley-Rock Falls winner takes the Black Pool.

La Salle-Peru 59, Mendota 24: Playing a Trojans team that’s been off a couple of weeks because of COVID-19 protocols, the Cavaliers raced to an early lead, scoring the first 11 points of the game.

John Riva drained a 3-pointer to get things started.

He hit a second 3 in the period and added two more buckets, including one in transition, to help the Cavs to a 19-3 lead after eight minutes.

“I thought we set the tone and tempo early,” Cherveny said. “We got out with some easy transition baskets. We knew they were coming off an unfortunate circumstance and haven’t had any practice. We knew we had to get baseline to baseline as quick as we could and get to the rim. We wanted to get them in a running game early. I thought we executed that pretty well.”

L-P led 21-5 early in the second quarter before the Trojans managed to rally within eight at 21-14 with 3:59 left.

The Cavs pushed their lead to 29-14 at halftime, led 45-19 after three quarters and invoked the 30-point running clock in the fourth.

“It was kind of what was expected,” MHS coach Steve Hanson aid. “We’ve been off since before Thanksgiving. We had one practice [Monday] night. It kind of showed early. Everything was a little bit off all night. There were some good things. Defensively, we got them to take a lot of 3s. That’s what we talked about going in. They hit a bunch. There was a stretch we clawed back in it. All in all, I was fairly pleased with our effort. I thought we were unselfish. We were just a little bit off.

“You have to credit them. [Josh] Senica is a tough matchup. He’d be really hard to handle whether we played every day or not. Riva shot the ball well. They’re tough. They’d be a tough matchup for us any time.”

Riva led the Cavs with 18 points, while Ozzy Hernandez added nine points.

Cale Strouss scored six points to lead MHS.

Princeton 70, St. Bede 51

The Tigers pushed the pace in the second quarter, stretching a four-point lead after the first quarter out to 16 with 4:10 left before halftime.

Princeton scored on eight of its first nine possessions of the second quarter – including dunks by Teegan Davis and Kolton Monroe – to take a 32-16 lead.

The Bruins tightened it up to 37-29 at halftime, but Princeton opened the third quarter with a 15-4 run – capped by a dunk by Monroe – to build an 18-point lead.

“I think it was more of the same as we did in the first and second quarters,” PHS coach Jason Smith said about then third quarter run. “We got up and down the court. They finally understood the break we’re trying to run. These guys need a visual, so we showed them some film [Monday]. We showed them a couple things and they took it to heart. I can’t praise those boys enough for being coachable and listening. I’m so proud of them.”

Davis scored a game-high 26 points to lead the Tigers, while Grady Thompson added 19 points.

Paul Hart scored 25 points to lead the Bruins.

“We have athletes who can match up with a kid of his caliber,” Smith said. “We knew he was going to get his points. He’s a heck of a player. We just tried to contain him as much as we could. He hit some tough shots. We made him work for everything. That’s all we can ask the kids to do defensively.”

St. Bede coach Brian Hanson was pleased his team didn’t let the game get away from it in the first half.

“We made a great run,” Hanson said. “We got some rebounds, got the ball down and got some buckets. There was a point there it was 16 points in the first half and they could have easily went on a run and put their foot on our throats, but we showed a little charater and got back in the game. We got lax again (in the second half). We have to learn and continue to grow.”

Marquette 65, Hall 40: After what Marquette coach Todd Hopkins called “one of the worst (games) I’ve been part of as a coach” on Monday in a 66-26 loss, the Crusaders bounced back against the host Red Devils.

Aside from a brief 3-2 deficit, the Crusaders led the whole way and pulled away in the second half.

“I was real worried how we were going to respond,” Hopkins said. “I don’t think we could have responded any better. We played with intensity. We played scared (Monday) night, got down and buried our heads. I told them we have to bounce back, and I thought they did.”

After Drake Garland sank a 3-pointer to put Hall ahead 3-2, Marquette’s Logan Nelson responded with a 3 of his own.

The Crusaders led 17-11 after the first quarter and had more points midway through the second than they did Monday.

“We were a little more patient,” Hopkins said. “We got the ball inside early then Logan got hot a little bit from outside, but he attacked the rim too. Both [Brady and Beau] Ewers played well inside. Tommy [Durdan] is playing really well at the point. We’re just trying to figure ourselves out. Kids are getting better.”

Marquette led 35-22 at halftime and extended its lead to as many as 27 in the second half.

“We are frustrated,” Hall coach Mike Filippini said. “Players are frustrated. Coaches are frustrated. We tried to play zone and we were out of position. We tried to play man and they’re bigger than we are. One of the only positives is we’re getting good shots. We’re just not making any.

“The good news is we still have two more games (in the tournament) to try to salvage 2-2 out of this. Our goal is to win the last two, get back on track and try to get a little confidence in what we’re doing.”

Durdan led Marquette with 19 points, while Nelson finished with 12 points and Beau Ewers added 10.

Garland paced Hall with 20 points.