Girls basketball: E-P tops Bureau Valley to set up title showdown with Princeton

The final two games Friday at the Princeton Holiday Tournament came down to the final minute.

In the final game, Erie-Prophetstown held on to beat Bureau Valley 35-34 in the championship pool to set up a title showdown with Princeton at 7 p.m. Saturday.

“I expect Princeton to be ready for us,” E-P coach Chris Brown said. “They’re going to be a pressure defense. They’re going to be a diamond-and-one into a 2-3 or into man. It looks like they have a nice team. They’re pretty athletic. I think we match up pretty well with them.”

Also Friday, Putnam County scored in the final minute to beat Stark County 37-34 to finish fourth in the tournament, while Streator took seventh with a 33-26 win over Henry-Senachwine/Lowpoint-Washburn.

Before Saturday’s title finale, Henry will play Midland at 4 p.m., and St. Bede will face Stark County at 5:30 p.m.

Erie-Prophetstown 35, Bureau Valley 34

The Panthers fell behind 29-25 on a 3-pointer by Kate Stoller with 5:50 left.

A 3-pointer by Gabi Abell with 5:38 left and a steal and layup by Abell a minute and a half later gave E-P a 30-29 lead. The Storm took the lead right back on a jumper by Kate Salisbury.

Hannah Hulsman grabbed a rebound and scored on a putback with 2:47 left to give E-P the lead for good. Kennedy Buck made three of four free throws in the final 28.6 seconds to help the Panthers hold on.

“We’ve been working on press-breakers,” Brown said. “We get pressed a lot, so we’ve been working on certain action. You have to make free throws down the stretch, and we struggled at times with free throws, but we made the ones that really counted.

“I’m super proud. It was a great team win tonight.”

After Salisbury’s jumper with 3:39 left, the Panthers held the Storm scoreless until Salisbury banked in a 3-pointer with 4.4 seconds left.

“They were really trying to run everything through [Salisbury], so we were throwing multiple girls at her, just switching on everything if we could and just playing the best we could and trying to be really good communicators,” Brown said.

During their scoring drought, the Storm were 0 for 4 from the floor and turned the ball over twice.

“Experience,” Bureau Valley coach Matt Wasilewski said when asked the difference in the game. “I have a couple sophomores out there who are still learning the game – little things we have to keep learning. But we’ll get there. That hurt us at the end, and we missed a couple shots. There were a couple shots where you couldn’t ask for a better look, and unfortunately, they just didn’t fall.”

Buck finished with 16 points for the Panthers, while Abell added seven.

Salisbury scored a game-high 21 points for the Storm, who finish third at 2-2.

“Our defense has carried us this week,” Wasilewski said. “The offense is a work in progress. Our girls made great strides this week. I saw a lot of good things, and I’m very pleased with the effort. I’m very proud of them – 2-2 is not a bad start. It’s not what we wanted, but we lost two games by five points, so that’s a heck of a week for us.”

Putnam County 37, Stark County 34

The Rebels scored a basket with 3:52 left to take a 34-32 lead, but the Panthers held Stark County scoreless the rest of the way to pull out the win.

“We were just closing out possessions on the defensive end, trying to only allow them one shot,” PC coach Jared Sale said. “Maggie Richetta was huge on the glass for us. We were finally closing out their shooters and trying to force them off the 3-point line a little bit.”

With the Rebels locked down, the Panthers clawed back into the game.

Ava Hatton split a pair of free throws with 2:08 left to pull PC within one.

Hatton drove through the Rebel defense for a layup with 48.8 seconds left for the go-ahead points before hitting a pair of free throws with 3.3 seconds left.

“It was designed for her to get to the rim,” Sale said about the winning basket. “That’s what she wants to do. I just kept saying, ‘They’re big. They’re strong. We have to be able to go around them.’ She was able to go hard and get to the rim. There was a lot of toughness from her to continue to go in there after getting hammered and hammered.”

Hatton poured in a game-high 26 points for the Panthers (3-1).

Streator 33, Henry 26

Cailey Gwaltney scored nine points to lead the Bulldogs, while Marisa Vickers added eight.

Streator trailed 9-3 after one quarter but rallied within 18-17 at halftime before outscoring the Mallards 6-3 in the third and 10-5 in the fourth.

Lauren Harbison, Desiree Couve and Kaitlyn Anderson scored six points each for Henry.