Princeville goes big to stop Stark; Galva drops opener
By Jeff Lampe
PRINCEVILLE – Seedings held up Monday night in the Princeville Class 1A Regional. But the best performance did not go to the highest seed. While the No. 2 seeded Princes eventually pulled away from Stark County in their opening-round win, No. 6 Elmwood blasted a Brimfield team it had lost to in the regular season.
In Monday’s opener, Princeville’s 26-12 halftime lead nearly disappeared, as Stark County went on a 19-7 run to pull within 33-31 with six minutes remaining.
Senior Kane Newton (16 points) helped fuel the run for Stark County with 10 points in the paint while Ryan Murphy (15 points) hit a big 3-pointer to narrow the gap to two points.
“We did an awesome job of kind of grinding and getting it to 33-31,” Rebels Coach Dustin Browning said.
After a first half in which he went 0-for-5 on 3-point attempts, Newtown moved down low and dominated Princeville for the third quarter and into the fourth. That forced adjustments by the Princes, the top seed in the regional.
Following a timeout after Murphy’s trey, two important things happened for the Princes. First, Joey Smith lofted a running shot in the lane that caught nothing but net. Smith was also fouled on the play and hit the free throw for another of his nine points in the fourth quarter.
“That was not what I designed,” Princeville Coach Jeff Kratzer said, laughing. “As a matter of fact, when he was driving in there, I was like, ‘No, no, no.’ It was one of those no-no-no, yes-yes-yes type of things.”
The other significant happening out of the timeout was something Kratzer did design. After getting hammered down low, he opted to play both his big men (Peyton Garcia and Chase Williams) at the same time. After the switch to two post players, the Princes (28-4) allowed just five points to Stark County (6-25) and finished with a 48-36 victory.
“The big adjustment was to bring both of our bigs in, which we haven’t done hardly at all this year, if at all,” Kratzer said. “And Chase did a great job. We basically told him, ‘Just go in and muscle up Newton, No. 25.” (Williams) got some rebounds and made them one-and-done down the stretch, and that was huge.
“The only other thing we could have done was to go to a 2-3 zone, which we’ve worked on just a little bit.”
For Browning, the battle into the fourth quarter reflected his team’s effort this season.
“Everybody wants to win and we want to win, and sometimes you can kind of get bogged down and bitter with losing,” Browning said. “But hey, we came out for the most part game after game and battled and were in games. I thought it was a fun year.”
After Monday’s second game, Brimfield Coach Scott Carlson twice mentioned “vengeance” following his team’s lopsided 63-35 loss to the Trojans (23-6). More than just vengeful, though, Elmwood looked much improved from the team that lost 53-52 at home to the Indians (14-14) back on Jan. 7.
In Tuesday’s action at Princeville, Peoria Heights upset Kewanee Wethersfield, 49-38. Wethersfield standout Coltin Quagliano, who suffered an ankle injury in the season finale against ROWVA-Williamsfield, played but scored just five points.
In the other game, Peoria Christian defeated North Fulton, 75-68.
That sets up a Wednesday slate pitting, weather permitting, Princeville vs. Elmwood at 6 p.m. and Peoria Christian vs. Peoria Heights at 7:30. The title game is scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m.
At Galva
Galva lost to Abingdon-Avon in their Class 1A regional opener, 61-41. Tristan Rogers had 9 points to lead Galva, while Kaden Jones put up 22 for A-Town.
In the other quarterfinal on Tuesday, United beat West Central, 63-57.
In Monday’s action, Ridgewood downed ROWVA-Williamsfield, 61-51. Lorin Peterson led R-W with 21 points and Ganon Greenman had 21 for Ridgewood.
Top-seed Peoria Quest was to face Ridgewood on Wednesday in one semifinal while United and A-Town squared off in the second game.
The title game is today, Feb. 28, at 7 p.m.
Elsewhere
Annawan lost its opener at the Class 1A Fulton Regional to Stockton, 49-35, on Tuesday.
Regular Season Ends
After getting into a position to stake a claim to the Lincoln Trail Conference regular season title last week, the Princes traveled to Mercer County for a 67-66 overtime loss on Friday.
“Our defense was really bad and our energy was lacking,” Kratzer said. “You let a team hang around and that’s something that can happen.”
Seth Crawley had 23 points to lead Mercer County while Joey Smith tallied 26 for the Princes, Carter Johnson added 12 and Cody Thole scored 10.
Afterwards, Kratzer said he mentioned to his team that the Princes had enjoyed 12- and 14-game win streaks this season.
“I told them, ‘Let’s just get on another win streak and have it go right on through the playoffs to state,” Kratzer said.
