Princeton to renew acquaintances with East Moline

The one new twist brought about by the COVID-19 IHSA basketball season is that local teams are playing different opponents this year to fill in the gaps of cancellations.

The Princeton boys have played two newcomers thus far, Rock Island, and most recently, Ridgewood on Tuesday. On Thursday, they will renew acquaintances with United Township of East Moline.

“I think these games will help us next year. (Tuesday’s 75-70 loss at Ridgewood) was great for our sophomores and juniors,” PHS coach Jason Smith said.

East Moline beat Princeton 65-38 at last year’s season-opening Thanksgiving tournament at Geneseo. The Panthers led from the very beginning, up 18-7 after the first quarter and 42-18 at the half.

Now PHS senior Jamie Reinhardt, who was named to the All-Tournament Team, led the Tigers with 11 points and classmate Isaac Legner added nine.

Previously, the Tigers met East Moline in the 1998-99 regionals when PHS was in Class AA. No. 2 seeded East Moline rolled over No. 16 Princeton 68-42 at East Moline.

They also met in the 1996-97 AA regional with No. 6 East Moline hosting and defeating No. 11 Princeton.

This will be the first time East Moline has played at Princeton in 24 years since the regional finals in 1995-96 at Prouty Gym.

Princeton, which was bumped into AA that year after reaching the Class A sectional finals the year with the consolidation of Tiskilwa, led throughout most of the game. East Moline rallied behind all-stater Marc Polite to a narrow 50-47 victory.

The Tigers lost at Rock Island 73-55, but played the Rocks to a 3-point game after falling behind 30-15 after the first quarter. This was the Tigers’ first meeting with the Rocks since the 1997-98 regionals at Rock Island.

The Princeton girls also picked former NCIC foe Ottawa for the first time in a few years.

The Hall boys have added games against new foes Flanagan-Cornell and Wethersfield and the Lady Devils have took on Morris.