Farmington ends Princeton’s season in sectional semifinal

MENDOTA – Everything was going the Princeton Tigers way in the second quarter of Tuesday’s Class 2A Mendota Sectional semifinal game.

They outscored Farmington, 14-3, to open up a 10-point lead at 26-16 near the halfway point.

The Farmers, however, weren’t ready to have their season plowed under just yet. They turned the tables on the Tigers, closing out the first half on a 12-2 run to tie the game at 28 and rode that momentum into the second half for a 65-56 win.

“I thought the first half we played extremely well, and we just stopped rebounding, and I think that gave them a lot of momentum and that was the difference in the game. That’s where it was won or lost in my eyes,” PHS coach Jason Smith said.

“As a coach, I should have called timeout after the first [rebound] we missed. I didn’t, the game played on and you know the rest of the story. They went on a 10-0 run, but it wasn’t bang-bang, but rather over a period of time. I should have realized we didn’t score and we were giving up rebounds, and I should have called a timeout there.”

The Tigers season ends at 21-10, and they won their first regional in 11 years.

“They played their hearts out. I commend these guys. I can’t really thank them enough. They made Princeton basketball relevant again,” Smith said.

Senior Kaden Monroe opened the second quarter with a putback to regain a 14-13 Tigers’ lead. Teegan Davis scored on a putback and added two free throws to give the Tigers an 18-15 lead at the 6:50 mark.

Back-to-back 3s by Davis and Grady Thompson made it 24-16 with 5 1/2 minutes remaining in the half. Thompson added a basket in the post to push the Tigers’ lead to 26-16 with 4:53 left in the half.

The Farmers made a methodical comeback over about four minutes of play to tie the game at the half.

Riley Embry had five points in a 10-0 Farmington run, including two free throws with 29 seconds left, to tie the game at 26.

Thompson was fouled near half court as the Tigers attempted to shoot a final shot and sank both tosses from the charity stripe. Farmington’s Logan Morse went coast to coast to beat the buzzer for a layup to tie the game back at 28 going into intermission.

Farmington missed a lot of shots, including many layups in the first half, but Farmers coach Marty Lozier said, “maybe they made us miss them.”

The battle continued into the third quarter with Davis and Kolten Monroe hitting back-to-back 3-pointers from the left corner to tie the game at 38 at the 3:15 mark.

“It was a see-saw battle there for a while, and I knew if they got up six or eight they would try to take the air out of the ball, and they sure did. It’s hard to come back from that,” Smith said. “You just got to hope and tell the kids to believe in the process of what we’re doing. And they did.”

Farmington went up, 45-40, at quarter’s end with Kaden Runyon scoring his only points of the game with a trey late.

The Farmers went on a 9-2 run to open up the fourth quarter for a 12-point lead. Morse started the run with a steal and a layup and ended it with another to make it 54-42 with 4:21 left.

Morse scored eight points in the fourth quarter, finishing with 18 for the game [16 in the second half], to help send the Farmers to Friday’s championship game.

Farmington sophomore Keauntrey Evans led all scorers with 20 points, with Embry adding 10 and Corbin Rutledge nine.

“I’ve got five to seven kids deep who can really execute our offense and we got them settled down at half. We started executing and getting the layups we want off it,” Lozier said. “Our sophomore (Evans) hit three 3s early, so they adjusted to him with one of their bigger guys, which opened up the court to our other guys. We were able to spread them out long enough and pull them out and turn (Morse) loose on the top.”

Evans scored 11 of his team-high points in the first quarter, including three 3-pointers. Only one other Farmington player got in the scoring column and the Tigers pulled within 13-12 at quarter’s end on a post basket by Kaden Monroe.

“We knew 42 (Kaden Monroe) was a real force off that top elbow so what we adjusted to was just doubling down there, and that helped us contain him a little bit,” Lozier said. “We had to retreat and make sure we covered the 3s. I thought we did a good job from the second quarter on.”

Smith said the Farmers really didn’t give them any surprises.

“Everything we thought they’d do, they did. We just didn’t execute,” he said.

Davis led the Tigers with 18 points with Thompson adding 15, Kaden Monroe 12 and Kolten Monroe eight.

“That was a fun game. They’re a great team, and I tell you what, he’s got a lot coming back, too,” Lozier said. “They’re a fantastic group. It was just our half and we got hot and that’s the time when we’re hard to stop when we get hot.”

Farmington (25-7) advances to Friday’s sectional championship game awaiting the winner of Wednesday’s semifinal between Eureka and Rockridge. The Farmers have played both Rockridge [a win] and Eureka [a loss in the championship game] in the Macomb Tournament and is ready to play either.

“We’re excited to play. We’re glad to be here. It’s been a long time for Farmington,” Lozier said.