Boys basketball: La Salle-Peru, Mendota win pools at Colmone Classic

The La Salle-Peru and Mendota boys basketball teams wrapped up pool play at the Colmone Classic with victories Wednesday to win their respective pools.

The Cavaliers beat Marquette 67-63 to win the Black Pool, while the Trojans topped Stillman Valley 62-47 to claim the White Pool.

Matchups are now set for the next stage of the tournament.

On Thursday, Bureau Valley will play Putnam County at 5 p.m. followed by St. Bede against Stillman Valley. The winners of those two games will play in the ninth-place game Saturday with the losers in the 11th-place game. Hall will play Pontiac at 8 p.m. with the winner moving to Saturday’s fifth-place game and the loser going to the seventh-place game.

The Hall-Pontiac winner will play the winner of Friday’s Princeton-Marquette game Saturday.

In the first semifinal at 6:30 p.m. Friday, L-P will play Fieldcrest.

“They’re going to be a tough team,” L-P coach John Senica said. “We’re going to have our hands full. Hopefully, we can contend with them and stay in the game.”

Mendota (4-3) faces Rock Falls in the second semifinal.

“It’s a really good accomplishment,” Mendota coach Steve Wasmer said about winning the pool. “It’s a good tournament with a lot of good, really well coached teams. It’s great for our program to get in the final four for this tournament.

“[Rock Falls] is good. We’ll have to play an incredibly great game. They’re going to pressure us. They’re going to ball hawk us. We’re going to have to play outstanding.”

Mendota 62, Rock Falls 47

The Trojans built a double-digit lead by halftime, withstood a third quarter run by the Cardinals then pulled away in the fourth quarter.

After an even first quarter, the Trojans scored on four consecutive possessions early in the second quarter, including back-to-back 3-pointers by Aden Tillman and Izaiah Nanez to build an eight-point lead.

The Trojans took their first double-digit lead on a steal and fast break layup by Cale Strouss with 2:46 left in the second quarter and Mendota led 35-24 at halftime.

Braiden Freeman drained a 3-pointer on Mendota’s first possession of the third quarter and the Trojans built a 16-point lead before the Cardinals rallied with a 14-3 run to cut the deficit to 43-38 with 1:55 left.

However, the Trojans responded.

Tillman sank a 3 to start an 8-2 run to close the third quarter, giving Mendota a 51-40 lead.

“I thought we started playing our game,” Wasmer said. “We were able to take a charge. We ran. We’re small, but we have some athletes and we can run the floor. We did a little bit better job of looking ahead. Izaiah stepped up and hit a couple shots.”

Nanez had 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists for Mendota, while Tillman hit 5 of 8 3s and finished with 17 points

La Salle-Peru 67, Marquette 63

With the Crusaders hanging around all game, never trailing by more than 10 points, L-P coach John Senica wanted to rely on his star player, Josh Senica.

“At the end of the third quarter we talked and we wanted to get Josh more involved,” John Senica said. “We told him to try to take a little more control.”

He delivered.

Josh Senica scored 13 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth quarter, helping seal the win with a rebound of a missed free throw that led to a three-point play on the putback with 15.4.

“I’m very proud of our effort,” Marquette coach Todd Hopkins said. “We had a couple mistakes and they took advantage of them. … Great players live for that moment. When that moment was there, he took the game over. You have to give them credit for getting him the ball and then him for delivering.

“Our kids fought. I think we scared them a little bit.”

The Crusaders came out shooting, making four 3-pointers in a row early in the first quarter and hitting five in the frame and 9 of 17 in the game.

L-P scored right with Marquette as the game was tied at 18 after the first eight minutes.

Alec Novotney hit a 3 that gave Marquette a 26-25 lead with 4:43 left in the second quarter and a bucket by Charlie Mullen pushed it to 28-25.

However, L-P tied it on a 3-pointer by Mikey Hartman and took the lead for good at 30-28 on a fast break basket by Nolan Van Duzer with 1:57 left in the first half.

The Cavs led 34-30 at halftime and extended it to 49-40 by the end of the third quarter and 50-40 on the first possession of the fourth.

“I think we played hard, but we have a lot of things to work on,” John Senica said. “Kudos to Marquette. They shot the lights out. They are a great 3-point shooting team. I knew they could shoot the 3 and we tried to prepare for it, but I didn’t prepare for them hitting as many as they hit.

“I think the ball kind of fell our way a little bit at the end there and we were able to make some big plays.”

After L-P went up 10, then Crusaders responded with a 7-0 run to pull within three. Marquette pulled within two on two occasions.

“It was just energy,” Hopkins said. “We got a couple defensive stops, knocked some shots down and then we had the momentum. But when it came to crunch time, the best player in the area took the game over. It’s plain and simple.”

Senica had 26 points and 11 rebounds for L-P, while Seth Adams had 14 points and three assists.

Novotney hit 4 of 9 3s and scored 20 points for Marquette, which finished 9 of 17 from 3, while Denver Trainor had 15 points and five assists and Mullen added 10 points.