The Mendota Trojans played a bit angry Friday night.

They lost their last two games earlier this week, falling to Rock Falls by two points and Sycamore by 13.

They turned that anger into a 73-51 win over rival Princeton in the Three Rivers East opener for both teams.

“We had a couple tough losses this week and I thought our guys were angry about it. Which is good. It was good we were able to get back to it so quickly,” Mendota coach Steve Wasmer said.

“Against Princeton, we don’t have a lot of good recent history against. Good rivalry. Jason (Tiger coach Smith) has an unbelievably good program. So, it’s nice to get a good win and start out 1-0 in conference.”

Smith doesn’t think the Trojans need to play angry to be good.

“At the end of the day, they want to play with as mich intensity as we do. So you can use that as motivation ... Honestly, I think our kids competed and the effort was great,” Smith said. “It’s more what we do than what they do. So, we’ve got to take care of the ball better and make better decisions and I think we’re right there.”

The Tiger coach said the Trojans just proved to be just too strong of a challenge on this night.

“They’re more athletic at the moment. They’re cohesiveness is better than us at the moment. They get up and down the floor real well. They’re going to be reckoned with in the postseason. Yeah, they’re a good ball team,” he said.

Mendota led by nine (17-8) at the end of the first quarter and 16 (39-23) at the half. The Trojans led by as much as 23 points (55-32) in the third quarter before freshman Julian Mucha hit a 3-pointer for the Tigers.

Wasmer was happy to play the Tigers at the start of the conference slate.

“They’re good year in and year out. They’re going and I also know they’re going to be better later in the year. Because that’s what they do,” he said. “Jason and Tim (Smith) will get them going and it will be a different game next time we play them there.”

While Mendota beat Princeton twice last year, Wasmer was quick to note both came when they caught the Tigers without injured all-stater Noah LaPorte, the program’s all-time leading scorer.

Cole Tillman led the Trojans (6-3, 1-0) with 17 points with Drew Becker had 14 and Aiden Tillman and Oliver Muñoz adding 11 each.

Senior guard Gavin Lanham led the Tigers (1-8, 1-0) 16 points, sophomore Jack Oester had nine and Mucha chipped in eight.

The Trojans head back to Spring Valley for the makeup date of the Colmone Classic championship against host Hall (6-1) at 1:30 p.m. Saturday. There will be a sophomore prelim starting at noon.

Princeton takes a break for Christmas, returning to the court for the Mike Hutchins Classic at Sherrard against Peoria Notre Dame (2-4) at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 27.