July 06, 2025
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Boys basketball: Tigers winning ugly at Ottawa, beat L-P

Dean Riley Shootin’ the Rock Thanksgiving Tournament: Princeton 53, L-P 46

By Kevin Hieronymus
Princeton's Daniel Sousa beats the buzzer for a putback at the end of the first quarter in Friday's early tournament action against L-P at Ottawa. The Tigers rallied late for a 53-46 win.

Princeton's Daniel Sousa beats the buzzer for a putback at the end of the first quarter in Friday's early tournament action against L-P at Ottawa. The Tigers rallied late for a 53-46 win. (Kevin Hieronymus)

OTTAWA - Winning is the end game and it doesn’t matter how you get there, even though it may not look pretty.The Princeton Tigers played through some rough moments in their second game of the young basketball season, only taking the lead for good early in the fourth quarter after trailing LaSalle-Peru as much as eight. Their late charge was enough to beat the Cavs, 53-46, in the first of their two games Friday in the Dean Riley Shootin’ The Rock Thanksgiving Tournament at Ottawa High School’s historic Kingman Gymnasium.

Having only a limited number of practices with a full roster, with some key players reporting late after a successful football postseason, Princeton coach Jason Smith said the Tigers are still working to put everything together.

“We’re going to win ugly right now. It’s just the way it’s going to be,” Smith said. “There’s a lot of kids playing positions they normally don’t play. There’s kids who are still learning things, because we’ve only had five practices together. If we can weather the storm early in the season, we’ll be much better late December and January going into February.

“I’m glad we’re here. I’m glad we’re playing the caliber of teams we’re playing. It’s only going to make us better.”

The Tigers improved to 2-0 heading into Friday night’s pool finale vs. Oak Forest to determine the Pool B winner. The Cavs finished 1-2 in pool play and will play in Saturday’s fifth-place game at 2:30 p.m.

“It’s going to be tough winning two games in a night. But I think this team is capable of doing that,” Smith said. “We’re going to see how conditioned we are now, won’t we? Oak Forest is going to be a tough team for us to play with. They play a different style of basketball. I think we’ll be ready for them at 7 o’clock.”

Senior guard Grady Thompson started the game with a pair of free throws, but the Tigers went more than 25 minutes before taking their next lead.

Princeton's Grady Thompson throws downs a dunk in Monday's win over Streator at Ottawa.

Princeton's Grady Thompson throws downs a dunk in Monday's win over Streator at Ottawa. (Mike Vaughn)

The Tigers regained the lead early in the fourth quarter on two baskets by Teegan Davis, the second with a post feed by Christian Rosario for a 39-38 edge.

A pair of free throws by Seth Adams put the Cavs back on top at 40-39, only to have Thompson bury a 3-pointer and Davis slam home two more Tiger points for a 44-40 lead, a lead they would, ever give up, with a little over four minutes remaining.

“Hats off to our kids for grinding it out, sticking with it,” Smith said. “We got down early, got down by eight, maybe, and we started chipping away at it. I thought once we got the lead, I thought we were not going to give it up.”

L-P coach Jim Cherveny said the turning point came when Cavs big man Josh Senica fouled out in the fourth quarter.

“I thought our guys competed very well. I thought we were the aggressor. I thought we were very physical the way we knew we knew had to be,” he said. “Just down stretch there. Senica got a cheap foul called on him, which knocked him out of the game. We just didn’t have a presence for their big guys.

“They have guys coming in from all over that are basketball players, and just long and lanky and that’s hard to compete with when they bring guys in like that, year after year.”

Cherveny said the Cavs a lot to learn from after playing three games.

“I’m a coach. I’m never happy,” he said. " I think this tournament is a very good learning experience. We knew coming into it we were going to see great competition and in order to compete, we would have to play our best basketball. I don’t think we’re playing our best. I think our future is really bright, though.”

Thompson led the Tigers with 17 points, Davis had 16 and LaPorte 11.

For L-P, London Cabrera had 11 points, Senica 10 and Adams nine].

The Cavs led by as much as eight points late in the second quarter at 26-18 with a putback by Senica and a runner in the lane by Brady Romagnoli.

Princeton closed within 26-23 at the half on a free throw and a steal and layup by Thompson and two free throws by Davis.

L-P went up 34-27 early in the third quarter, but the Tigers used a 7-0 run, including a drive by Thompson and putbacks by LaPorte and Davis to tie the game.

Cabrera drained a 3-pointer with two seconds left to put the Cavs back in front at 37-34 at quarter’s end.

Princeton outrebounded L-P 33-25, while committing one more (15) turnovers. The Tigers also had a shooting edge from the field at 40% (16-40) while the Cavs shot 35% (15-43).