Boys basketball: La Salle-Peru turns up pressure, pulls away from Mendota in Plano opener

PLANO – The unseeded Mendota Trojans played third-seeded La Salle-Peru dead even through one half of the old rivals’ first-round meeting Wednesday in the 60th Plano Christmas Classic.

The Cavaliers apparently didn’t like that.

Led by big man Josh Senica and fellow senior Seth Adams, L-P increased the defensive pressure and held Mendota scoreless the first 5:33 of the second half en route to a 57-43 victory. The Cavaliers (11-3) advance in the winners’ bracket to Thursday’s 7 p.m. quarterfinal against Marmion Academy.

“We just came out [in the second half] with a lot more intensity,” Adams said. “We needed to get in their face, get in the passing lanes. We weren’t getting rebounds like we usually do.

“We had to get back to what we usually do to get back the lead.”

Using individual quickness, great ball movement and the equalizer that is the 3-point line, the Trojans kept up basket-for-basket over the first two quarters right down to the half’s final seconds. Adams drained a 3-pointer on one end to put the Cavaliers ahead just to have Mendota’s Cameron Kelly drain a buzzer-beating 3 on the other end a few seconds later to send the game to the half tied at 30.

“The first half I thought we were very flat on defense, weren’t aggressive at all. We needed to pick the tempo up,” Cavaliers coach John Senica said. “Mendota did a very good job of tempo-ing the game in the first half ... and that’s not our play. So I told [the team] at halftime, ‘We’ve got to pick up the tempo and pick up the defense,’ and that’s why we started the full-court press, to try to get that tempo back.”

It took 54 seconds of the third quarter for La Salle-Peru to retake the advantage on a Jack Jereb putback. The Cavaliers never looked back, as Jereb’s go-ahead basket started an 11-0 run for the Cavaliers that included two Josh Senica free throws, an Adams 3, a Nicholas Olivero free throw and a 3-ball from Josh Senica.

On the other end of the floor, Mendota missed its first nine field-goal attempts out of the break and found itself behind 41-30 before scoring its initial second-half point on a Kelly free throw with 2:27 left in the third.

“That’s been the case for us the last four or five games,” said Mendota coach Steve Wasmer, whose team next plays at 12:30 p.m. Thursday. “With good teams, we’re right there either tied or ahead at half. Then the third quarter has just been an Achilles’ heel for us for some reason.

“I knew coach Senica was going to get on them at halftime, that he wasn’t very happy with their effort. So I knew we had to amp it up a little more and figure out how to handle that pressure, but they sped us up in that third quarter. We have to figure out how to handle that pressure.”

The Trojans (5-8) climbed back within five points a couple times from there, but never closer. A sudden four-point L-P surge – a pair of Josh Senica free throws immediately followed by an Adams midcourt steal and layup – with about two minutes remaining in regulation proved to be the dagger.

Josh Senica finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds, both game highs. Adams added 12 points and three steals, Olivero scored seven to go with six rebounds, Jereb scored six points, and Michael Hartman finished with five points and a half-dozen rebounds for the Cavaliers, who shot just 30.5% (18 of 59) to Mendota’s 38.6% (17 of 44), but made up for it with a 14-5 advantage in turnovers forced and 39-28 edge in rebounding.

Jace Baird’s 13 points, Cale Strouss’ nine points with four assists, Aden Tillman’s eight points before fouling out and Izaiah Nanez’s seven-point, eight-rebound effort paced the Trojans.