Darius Harrington, Dixon overower Princeton 61-50

PRINCETON - It would be hard to pick which quarter was Darius Harrington’s best Monday night at Princeton.

He had 11 points in the second quarter and followed up with 14 more in the third quarter, finishing with a game-high 36 points, to power the Dukes to a 61-50 win over their former NCIC rivals.

“He’s just a tough player. He’s a tough matchup, night in and night out. He can score at all three levels. Great kid on top of it,” Dixon coach Chris Harmann said. “He really did a good job working in on some of their zones early on. I thought he really did a nice job in the third quarter.”

Eli Davidson buried a jumper to give the Dukes a 17-10 lead early in the second quarter. Harrington then took over, scoring four straight hoops to give the Dukes a 25-12 lead and added 3 of 4 free throws for a 30-18 lead at quarter’s end.

Harrington was just warming up, coming up with 14 more in the third quarter to help run the Dukes' lead to 47-33.

The Dukes led as much as 61-42 late in the game before both teams substituted out.

Harmann said the Dukes made Princeton senior Noah LaPorte, who’s averaging about 22 points per game, a focus of their attention and did a good job holding him to 11 points.

“I thought we played pretty well on both ends of the court,” Harmann said. “We did some things to try to limit the LaPorte kid. That kid’s a load. He can play basketball. When he gets you down around the block area, it’s over.

“It’s one of those things, where they’ve got guys knocking down shots, it’s a tough night. We got lucky on a couple of those tonight. They did get a couple good looks, the ball rimmed out on them. We were fortunate for them.”

Brady Feit scored 10 points for the Dukes.

The Tigers fell behind 9-2 to start the game and 15-8 at the end of the first quarter.

Reinhardt said they have to do a better job answering the bell each night.

“We have to start off hot. Every game we just start out slow and it bites us,” he said.

The best thing about Monday’s loss for the Princeton is that it won’t have long to dwell over it. The Tigers will to have to answer the bell less than 24 hours later to take on Riverdale back at Prouty Gym on Tuesday night.

“It’s better than football. You have to wait a whole week (after a loss) and we get to go back at it tomorrow,” said Princeton senior Jordan Reinhardt, who led the Tigers with 20 points.

“Obviously, it matters. We always want to compete, but we won’t see (Dixon) again. We’re looking forward to tomorrow. (Riverdale) is in our sub-sectional.”

Princeton coach Jason Smith said it is a good thing the Tigers (9-12) can get right back after it.

“I guess that’s a saving grace because we looked pretty disinterested for some reason,” he said. “Dixon’s a very good basketball team. I think we’re a very good basketball team when we compete. I just didn’t see the competitive fire in us for whatever reason.

“I don’t know if it was because it was on Monday, coming off a weekend or what it was exactly. We need to wake up in the morning and smell the roses because we’ve got Riverdale tomorrow. Doesn’t get any easier.”

Smith said he’s not using the Monday thing as an excuse, because Dixon had to suit up on a Monday, too.

“No excuses. I have to coach them better. They got to want to come out and compete better,” he said.

Riverdale (16-5) will be in the Tigers' sub-sectional, in which Princeton will be hosting a regional, and a win over the Rams would be important for the seeding meeting.

“It’d be nice to have a win over those guys because of the seeding situation,” Smith said. “But at this point, the way we’re playing for a play-in spot. I think it’s a big game for us in multiple fashions. One, so we know we can compete with teams like that and two for the seeding of it all.”