OTTAWA – The La Salle-Peru boys basketball team used a strong final three minutes of the first quarter to grab an early advantage on Ottawa on Friday night.

The Cavaliers then built a 17-point lead late in the third before holding off a charge from the Pirates in the fourth to capture the Interstate 8 Conference and regular-season finale at Kingman Gym on Ottawa’s senior night.

“It’s always tough to come in here to play Ottawa, and (Pirates coach Mark) Cooper always has his guys ready to play,” La Salle-Peru coach John Senica said. “I told my guys before the game that we just had to be mentally tough and weather the storm at the start. I thought we did a good job of doing both those things.

“This was a great team effort tonight from everyone. We played really good defense tonight. I mean we held them to what, 37 points? I’ll take that.”

Following the 252nd all-time meeting – L-P now leading the all-time series 142-109 – L-P improved to 22-8 this season and 7-3 (second place) in league play.

Ottawa fell to 12-14 overall and 3-7 in the I-8.

L-P had balance in the win, with Seth Adams posting 14 points, six rebounds and three steals. Jack Jereb (five rebounds), Michael Hartmann (three rebounds) and Josh Senica (eight rebounds) all had 10 points each.

Ottawa was led by 12 points from Cooper Knoll, with Lucas Goetz adding eight and Evan Snook six points, five rebounds and six assists.

“I think there were a couple stretches where we stalled out a little on offense, but I think we were pretty good defensively,” L-P senior Brendan Boudreau said. “They hit a few shots here and there to get the place pretty loud, but it seemed like we were always able to find a way to score at the other end to quiet things down a little.

“I feel like when we needed a basket, we were able to run our offense and get one.”

Ottawa’s Goetz splashed home a 3-pointer 15 seconds in the first quarter and later added a layup, but La Salle-Peru countered with six points from Adams and a pair of triples from Senica to hold an 18-7 lead.

Knoll opened the second with a power drive for two, but an Adams drive, then a floater in the lane turned three-point play pushed the Cavs to a 25-13 halftime advantage.

“L-P’s run there in the final half of the first quarter put us behind and had us playing catchup the rest of the night,” Cooper said. “The kids were able to battle back and get us in a decent position early in the fourth, but from there just weren’t able to more to close the gap any further.

“This is a game both sides really want to win. It’s a long and storied rivalry that both communities follow closely. We just didn’t have enough in the tank to battle all the way back from getting down double digits early on.”

L-P pushed the lead to 36-19 with 1:30 left in the third on a trey by Jereb and held a 36-24 lead heading to the fourth.

Ottawa, with a 3 from Goetz and back-to-back hoops from Tristain Finley, cut it to 38-33 with 5:34 left.

From there, four points from Senica and a triple by Hartman helped L-P grab the momentum back.

Next: Both teams open the postseason Wednesday at the Class 3A Sterling Regional, with No. 8 Ottawa playing the No. 2 host Golden Warriors at 6 p.m. followed by No. 5 La Salle-Peru playing No. 3 Dixon.