Boys basketball: Princeton tops Plano in overtime at Ottawa

OTTAWA - The Princeton Tigers gave coach Jason Smith exactly what he was hoping for at the Dean Riley Shootin’ the Rock Thanksgiving Tournament this week.

The Tigers defeated Plano, 59-56, in overtime on Saturday, thanks in part to missed free throws by the Reapers on some most inopportune PHS fouls, holding on to capture the fifth-place game and finish with the 2-2 record that Smith desired.

“I told the guys going into the tournament just with the lack of time, the lack of togetherness, I would be extremely happy with 2-2 with the competition over here. And we’re 2-2,” Smith said, noting the Tigers late start getting players back from an extended playoff football run. “I’m real excited with that. Did we make some mental mistakes today? Maybe some coaching errors, too? Yes. That falls on my shoulders. I’ll take that. I learned from that and I will get our kids mentally prepared better at end of the game situations because of it.

“But the grit and the guts they showed in the second half, because they’re not in basketball shape yet, was pretty remarkable.”

PHS junior Noah LaPorte, who led the Tigers with 32 points after scoring 41 Friday in a win over Marengo, walked away satisfied.

“Those are the games we love to play for, because it ain’t no walk in the park. It’s a tough hard fought win,” he said.

Princeton trailed by one entering the fourth quarter at 37-36 and as much as four points midway through at 48-44 when Armando Martinez hooped for the Reapers.

Daniel Sousa drew the Tigers even at 50 on a drive with 1:57 remaining and Korte Lawson followed with another scoring drive at the 1:02 mark to give them their first lead since the third quarter at 52-50.

With fouls to give, Smith instructed the Tigers to foul the Reapers to cut into the time remaining. They took it to heart too much, however, and intentionally fouled Martinez on a drive to the basket.

Martinez missed both free throws and the Reapers got to inbound the ball with 4.3 remaining. Christ Keleba found himself wide open on the inbounds play and scored to tie the game, but he, too, missed his free throw.

The Tigers got the rebound and called a timeout with 1.7 left. LaPorte fired off a long 3-pointer that came up short to send the game into overtime.

The Tigers and Reapers traded punches in overtime.

LaPorte drew first blood with a putback of his own miss, but Martinez answered with a putback for the Reapers to tie the game at 54.

Sousa cashed in two free throws at the 2:15 mark, only to have Martinez pick up a loose ball in the paint and score again to make it 56-all with 1:15 left.

LaPorte muscled up for a bucket in the paint at 48.7 and followed up with a steal. He was fouled on a pull-up, making the first of two free throws to give the Tigers 59-56 lead with 33.7 remaining.

The Tigers made an ill advised timeout call on a tie-up for the ball after a missed Plano shot, but had no timeouts remaining and were assessed a technical foul. Plano once again missed both free throws and the Tigers escaped with the win.

“Thankfully Plano didn’t hit those free throws, but even if they did we weren’t going anywhere. We were going to fight till the end of the game,” LaPorte said.

“When you win close games like that, you need some luck, right?” Smith said. “Plano missed some free throws. They had their opportunities. But we had our opportunities, too. You can say that both ways. It was more obvious because they missed their free throws, but we missed some layups in the first half.”

Tyson Phillips had 10 points for the Tigers with Lawson adding seven and Sousa six.

Martinez led the Reapers with 15 points and Alijah Johnson added 13.

Plano led throughout the first half, as much as seven at 15-8 at the end of the first quarter and twice by five in the second quarter on the strength of five 3-pointers.

LaPorte scored on a lob pass from Sousa with five seconds left cut the Reapers’ lead to 27-24 at the half.