La Salle-Peru finishes Plano Classic with big win: Illinois Valley Area Roundup for Saturday, Dec. 30

Boys basketball

La Salle-Peru 71, Hinckley-Big Rock 40: At the Plano Christmas Classic, the Cavaliers jumped out to a 21-7 first-quarter lead in rolling to the victory in the seventh-place game over the Royals on Saturday.

“The last couple of games we had not run our offense properly and got out of too much of what we want to do,” La Salle-Peru coach John Senica said. “We stressed getting back to that today and we did. Today we were moving the ball, not stagnant, moving to the right spots, setting screens where we are supposed to be setting screens and not just running a free-for-all all. I was happy with our performance.”

The L-P balanced attack was led by all-tournament selection Josh Senica, who scored 16 points, to go along with 11 rebounds, five assists and three steals. Seth Adams posted 15 points, four rebounds and three assists, while Michael Hartman added 14 points and six rebounds. Nicholas Olivero chipped in eight points.

“This is a great tournament that has a number of really good teams in it, and it was good to see some different teams then we’ll see the rest of the season,” John Senica said. “Hopefully we’ll be back next year.”

Mendota 76, Sandwich 54: At the Plano Christmas Classic, the Trojans raced to a 22-8 first-quarter lead in winning the 13th-place game against the Indians.

Mendota was led by 19 points from Aden Tillman, 16 points and four assists from Cale Strouss, and 13 points and four rebounds from Izaiah Nanez.

Simeion Harris and Dom Rome (five rebounds) led Sandwich with 11 points each, while Chance Lange netted 10 points.

Lisle 46, Newark 31: At the Plano Christmas Classic, the Norsemen were outscored 27-18 in the second half in dropping the 15th-place game to the Lions.

Dylan Long paced Newark with 14 points, including four 3-pointers, and four rebounds. Lance Pasakarnis added nine points and four steals, with Cody Kulbartz grabbing nine rebounds.

Seneca 58, Charleston 51: At the 10th Effingham/Teutopolis Christmas Classic, the Fighting Irish finished the downstate tournament 2-2 with the win over the Trojans.

Seneca led 20-7 after one quarter, 34-20 at halftime and 44-32 after three quarters.

Fighting Irish junior Paxton Giertz, who scored 83 points in four games, was named to the 16-member all-tournament team.

Girls basketball

West Chicago 42, Seneca 35: At the Lisle Christmas Tournament, the Fighting Irish fell to the Wildcats in the consolation championship game on Friday night.

Alyssa Zellers — who was named to the all-tournament team — led Seneca (10-10) with nine points on a trio of 3-pointers. Graysen Provance scored eight points, while Lainie Olson and Audry McNabb posted six points apiece.

Boys wrestling

Seneca finishes 3rd in Silver Bracket at ABE’s Rumble: At ABE’s Rumble in Springfield, the Fighting Irish went 3-1 on the event’s final day, including a 54-22 victory over Lawrenceville in the Silver Bracket third-place dual.

Seneca also defeated Morrison 48-33 and Murphysboro 42-38 while falling to Mt. Zion 42-41.

Ethan Othon (120/126 pounds), Nate Othon (150/157) and Asher Hamby (175) each recorded four wins for Seneca. Raiden Terry (106) posted three victories, while Nick Grant (144), Gunner Varland (157), Chris Peura (215) and Jeremy Gagnon had two triumphs apiece.