L-P splits, Princeton wins opener at Ottawa girls tournament: NewsTribune roundup for Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023

Girls basketball

Ottawa tournament: LaSalle-Peru won one of two games and Princeton won its opener on Saturday.

La Salle-Peru opened the day with a 50-35 win over Pontiac. Kaylee Abens led the Cavaliers with 14 points, Addie Duttlinger had 10 points and Jasmine Garman added six.

The Cavaliers lost to Canton 50-28 in the nightcap. Duttlinger had 13 points, Abens had seven points and Elli Sines grabbed 10 rebounds.

Camryn Driscoll hit three clutch free throws to lift the Tigresses to a 52-49 over Newark in the fifth game of the day. Keighley Davis led the Tigresses with 23 points.

In other tournament games, Morris beat Newark 52-30, IVC beat Streator 30-25, Metamora beat Prairie Central 52-17, Canton beat Pontiac 65-36 and Ottawa defeated IVC 45-24.

The tournament resumes with three games on Wednesday.

Mendota 44, Earlville 31: The Trojans turned the heat on to start the second half, outscoring the Red Raiders 18-4 in the third quarter to turn the tide for a nonconference victory at Earlville.

“We turned our pressure up and turned steals into buckets,” Mendota coach John Hansen said.

Ava Eddy led the Trojans with 16 points and Ella Martin and Bria Frey added seven each.

Earlville’s Madyson Olson scored her 1,000th career point, finishing with 11 points in the game along with 11 rebounds and four steals.

Ryleigh Dixon added 12 points and Addie Scherer pulled down nine rebounds for the Red Raiders.

Sherrard 33, Hall 25: The Red Devils played the Tigers even through three quarters, but slipped in the fourth quarter in a nonconference loss in Spring Valley.

“Good effort from our girls, especially on the defensive end. We won the middle two quarters,” Hall coach TJ Orlandi said.

McKenna Christiansen led the Red Devils with 13 points and Ella Sterling added eight.

Serena 46, Putnam County 38: The Panthers led after three quarters, but couldn’t hold off the Huskers in a nonconference game in Serena.

Ava Hatton led PC with 19 points and Maggie Richetta added 10.

Fieldcrest 50, Richland County 43: The Knights improved to 7-4 on the season with the victory over the Tigers at the St. Joe-Ogden Shootout.

Kaitlyn White poured in 23 points for Fieldcrest, while Macy Gochanour added 13.

Boys basketball

Rochelle 70, Princeton 62 (OT): The Hubs (3-6) rallied in the fourth quarter to force overtime and outscored the Tigers 15-7 in the extra frame for the win over their former NCIC rival.

Jordan Reinhardt and Noah LaPorte each had 18 points for the Tigers and DJ Sousa added 13.

The loss snapped a four-game win streak for the Tigers (7-5).

Wrestling

At Springfield: The LaSalle-Peru boys and girls brought home some hardware from the Joe Bee Memorial Tournament in Springfield.

Kiely Domyancich led the medal take for L-P with a first-place finish at 105 pounds. Also for the L-P girls, Danica Scoma (140) took third place and Sarah Lowery (110) placed fifth.

Reegan Kellett led the L-P boys with a runner-up finish at 132 pounds. Other medal winners for the Cavs were Jentz Watson (150), who placed third, Austin Herron (106), who placed fourth, and Zach Pocivasek (157), who finished fifth.

At Dewitt, Iowa: Princeton brought home three first-place finishes from the Saber Invitational in Dewitt, Iowa on Saturday.

The Tigers finished third as a team in the 14-team field, 12 from the Hawkeye state.

Champions on the day were Augustus Swanson (106), Ace Christiansen (138) and Cade Odell (285).

The Tigers also got thirds from Kaydin Gibson (126) and Casey Etheridge (165) and sixths from Jaydon Cooke (120), Preston Arkels (157) and Ian Morris (215).

At Stillman Valley: Mendota’s Angil Serrano (285) placed second and Gavin Stevenson (113) was fourth in the Stillman Valley Invitational. Corbin Furar (157) placed sixth on injury default.

Adrian Arteaga (106), Cole Kleckner (138) and Madrick Musgrove (215) all placed third in the JV meet.

Boys swimming

At Peoria: The La Salle-Peru co-op placed ninth among 12 teams in the 31st annual Midwest Invitational at Peoria Richwoods.

Top place-finisher for the Cavs was Chris Lowery, who placed seventh in the 100 yard breaststroke (1:06.67). He was also 10th in the 100 yard backstroke (1:01.93) and 13th in the 50 freestyle (24.09)

Brian Lowery placed 12th in the 200 yard IM (2:14.55) and 14th in the 500 yard freestyle (5:41.31)

Jonathan Neu had a 10th-place finish in the 100 yard backstroke (1:01.93) and 11th-place finish in the 200 yard IM (2:13.71).

Caleb Strand was 13th in the 100 yard butterfly (1:07.49).

L-P placed ninth in the 400 yard freestyle relay (3:45.58) with Neu, Brian Lowery, Vince Wargo and Chris Lowery and ninth in the 200 yard freestyle relay (1:38.66) with Neu, Caleb Strand, Chris Lower and Brian Lowery.

Men’s basketball

Kirkwood 84, IVCC 55: Qu’amar Hobbs led the eagles in defeat in a nonconference game on the Hilltop.