Basketball notebook: Princeton will play Quincy Notre Dame, Rockford Lutheran

The Princeton Tigers will take on a new experience when they travel to the Martin Luther King Jr. Showcase at Bloomington Central Catholic, facing two new opponents.

The Tigers (9-8) will play the third game of the day on Saturday, Jan. 13 at 3 p.m. against Quincy Notre Dame (9-7). Two days later, the Tigers will return to Bloomington to face Rockford Lutheran (12-6) of the day at noon on Monday, Jan. 15.

Tiger coach Jason Smith looks forward to the new challenges.

“We played Quincy Notre Dame in the summer down at Monmouth. They’re going to be a good battle for us. And Rockford Lutheran is a different style of basketball so that’s going to be nice as well,” he said.

“I’m happy with it. That’s why we play the big schools, because of things like that and that’s why we’re in this tournament.”

Lutheran and Princeton would have crossed paths in last year’s supersectional had the Tigers got past Rockridge in the sectional finals. Rockridge beat Lutheran 60-59 at the Class 2A Sterling Supersectional and went on to place fourth at state.

Saturday’s lineup in Bloomington includes Aurora Christian (11-2) vs. Normal U-High (11-6) at noon, Rockford Lutheran vs. Seneca (12-5) at 1:30 p.m. and Peoria Notre Dame (8-8) vs. Central Catholic (8-7) at 4:30 p.m.

Russell Witte’s Seneca Irish will face the host Saints in the Jan. 15 nightcap at 4:30 p.m. Other games that day will match Quincy Notre Dame vs. Aurora Christian at 1:30 p.m. and U-High vs. Peoria Notre Dame at 3 p.m.

Bloomington Central Catholic is located at 1201 Airport Road on the east side of Bloomington.

After a slow start (7-8), the Tigers have now won their last two games, defeating Mendota (60-47) and Kewanee 61-55. Tuesday’s game with Ottawa was postponed until Monday, Jan. 22.

Bravettes play in Shootout

The Annawan girls had their own showcase event, falling to Davenport Assumption 48-43 in the IHMVCU Illinois-Iowa Shootout on Saturday at Wharton Fieldhouse in Moline.

Assumption is a 3A school in Iowa and was voted the second best team out of the 12 on the Iowa side of the river, matching up with the Bravettes, ranked No. 3 in Class 1A, who were voted second on the Illinois side.

Annawan held out its top scorer, junior Bella VanOpdorp, who is 35 points away from 1,000, due to precautionary reasons as she keeps reinjuring a sprained ankle. Coach Jason Burkiewicz said she would have played had it been a game “we needed to win” and expects her back soon.

Zoey Vance led the Bravettes with 16 points with Olivia Goodley adding nine, Elaina Manuel eight, Paige Sierens six and Kaylee Celus four.

“We played five players the entire game to their eight and they brought a good pressure man to man defense. All things considered we handled it great and gained a ton of respect from the fans in attendance,” Burkiewicz said.

Four schools from the Three Rivers Conference also participated with Rockridge falling to Clinton, Iowa 41-36, Erie-Prophetstown beating Davenport Central 48-37, Riverdale beating Mediapolis 57-26 and Sherrard losing to Muscatine 64-46.

Aledo Mercer County, which will join the Three Rivers next year, beat Wilton 56-43

Geneseo also participated, falling to Bettendorf 50-28.

Iowa won the overall event 7-5, including six games at Augustana College.