Roundup: L-P girls basketball edges Rock Falls in home opener

Angela Smudzinski drained a 3-pointer with 20 seconds left to help the La Salle-Peru girls basketball team to a 37-36 victory over Rock Falls in a non-conference game Saturday in La Salle.

Smudzinski finished with eight points for the Cavaliers (5-0), while Brooklyn Ficek scored nine points and Addie Duttlinger added eight points.

DePue 29, Cornerstone Christian 27

The Little Giants edged Cornerstone on Saturday to claim the title at the Calvary Christian Thanksgiving Tournament with a 3-0 record.

BOYS BASKETBALL

DePue 45, Greenville 36

Andres Moreno scored 17 points and grabbed 13 rebounds Saturday to lead the Little Giants to third place at the Calvary Christian Thanksgiving Tournament with a 2-2 record.

Francisco Moreno added eight points and eight steals for DePue.

Dixon 59, La Salle-Peru 49

At the Dean Riley Shootin’ the Rock Tournament in Kingman Gym, the teams were tied at 41 with just over six minutes to play before the Dukes — hitting 9-of-10 free throws in the final minutes — pulled away from the Cavaliers in the third-place contest.

La Salle-Peru (2-2) led 11-7 after the opening quarter and the clubs were knotted up at 23 at halftime and 36 after three quarters.

”We just never really got into the flow of our offense tonight,” said La Salle-Peru coach Jim Cherveny, his squad hitting 39% from the field and holding a 30-20 advantage in rebounding. “Give Dixon a lot of credit for that, but when they went to a man-to-man defense there is no excuse for why we couldn’t have executed better than we did. It was frustrating as a coach, but it’s my job to get them back to where I think we should be.”

Junior guard London Cabrera knocked down six shots from beyond the arc and finished with a game-high 20 points for the Cavaliers. Senior guard Michael Jereb added 11 points and four rebounds, while sophomore forward Josh Senica posted eight points and a game-best 12 rebounds.

Jacob Gaither paced the Dukes with 18 points with Wyatt Wetzell adding 13.

“London shot the ball really well for us tonight and we’ve seen him do that in practice, so tonight he was a bright spot for us,” Cherveny said. “Josh also had another nice game for us down low.”

Up next for L-P is its home opener against Hall at 7 p.m. Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“Like every team, there were a lot of unknowns to start the season, but I noticed this week that when we play unselfish basketball and play together, we have the ability to string together good possessions both offensively and defensively,” Cherveny said. “When we play together we can win some games. But the second the ball stops moving, we get a little selfish on the offensive end and the hustle slows down on defense, things can go south awful quick.

“We have three games coming up this week, so there isn’t a lot of preparation time. We have a couple of practices and we are right back into things. We have to stay together. No matter how we feel walking out of here tonight, we need to focus on the positives from this week and build off of them.”

Dwight 72, St. Bede 69

At Woodland’s Warrior Dome in the third-place game of the Route 17 Classic, the Bruins finished the week 2-2, fighting from behind almost the entire fourth quarter and staying close, but not quite catching the Trojans (3-1).

All-tournament selection Paul Hart scored 32 points for St. Bede with Luke Story adding 14 and Callan Hueneberg contributing 13. Duncan Lawler pitched in seven.

“We battled back twice from an eight-point deficit and had a chance to tie it at the end,” St. Bede coach Brian Hanson said. “I’m proud of our effort.”

Dwight — led by Wyatt Thompson’s 29-point performance — led 36-28 at halftime.

St. Bede rallied to tie it at 49 heading into the fourth, but the Trojans led throughout the final period on their way to claiming the third-place trophy.

Earlville 67, Ridgeview 59

Griffin Cook scored 20 points Saturday to lead the Red Raiders to victory in the seventh-place game at the Route 17 Classic at Woodland.

Ryan Browder had 17 points, Diego Vazquez scored 13 points and Bryar Keller added 12 points for Earlville (1-3).

Rock Falls 57, Princeton 55

The Tigers fell on the last day of the Geneseo Thanksgiving Tournament on Saturday.

Princeton finished 1-3 at the tournament with the three losses coming by a combined six points.

Leland 51, LaMoille 43

Leland snapped a 59-game losing streak — the longest in the state — against the Lions on the final day of the Ashton-Franklin Center Thanksgiving Tournament on Saturday.