{"id":8232,"date":"2025-10-24T12:30:44","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=8232"},"modified":"2025-10-24T12:30:44","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:30:44","slug":"boys-basketball-princeton-claims-conference-championship-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/?p=8232","title":{"rendered":"Boys basketball: Princeton claims conference championship – Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"


The Princeton bench celebrates a Tiger basket during Friday’s 80-32 win over Newman at Prouty Gym. The Tigers clinched their first conference championship in 13 years by going 12-0 in the Three Rivers East. <\/span>(Mike Vaughn)
In a season with many first and new records, the Princeton<\/a> Tigers enjoyed another milestone Friday at Prouty Gymnasium.
The Class 2A No. 1-ranked Tigers rode a 20-2 run to close out the second-quarter for a 27-point halftime lead, and cruised to an 80-32 victory over Newman<\/a> to capture their first conference championship in 13 years.
[ <\/span>Photos of Princeton vs. Newman boys basketball<\/a> ]<\/span>
The Tigers (28-1, 12-0) ran the table in the Three Rivers East, putting the first conference championship numbers on the gym wall since the 2009-10 team finished atop the NCIC Lincoln.
\u201cDefinitely something special. It will be cool to put the numbers on the board,\u201d Princeton senior Teegan Davis said.
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize it was that long. I don\u2019t study the numbers like everybody else does,\u201d Princeton coach Jason Smith said. \u201cCoach Freds [Michael Fredericks] said in the pregame we got a chance to do something that hasn\u2019t been done since 2010. That\u2019s special, right? The whole year has been special. We\u2019ve got to continue on.\u201d
The Comets (22-8, 10-2), whose only conference losses are to Princeton, kept up with the Tigers early, down just 14-10 in the first quarter.
Princeton’s Teegan Davis soars for a dunk against Newman Friday night at Prouty Gym. He scored 29 points to lead the Tigers to a 80-32 win. <\/span>(Mike vaughn)
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Davis and Grady Thompson and a strip steal and layup by Davis stretched the Tigers\u2019 lead to 22-12 at the end of the first quarter.
Then the fun really began for the home crowd.
Davis fueled a 20-2 run to end the second quarter, scoring 16 of his game-high 29 points. He scored 14 straight points on his own, including two dunks, a 3-pointer and a three-point play.
Thompson, who finished with 22 points, added two hoops before Davis closed out the half on the break to send the Tigers to a 45-15 halftime lead.
\u201cWe played a complete game. We just kind of put our foot on the pedal and tried to create a gap and keep working hard,\u201d Davis said.
\u201cI knew it was a big run. 20-2? That\u2019s pretty big,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI knew we had some momentum on our side. I think [Newman] Coach [Ray] Sharp was about ready to run out of timeouts. When we had them on the ropes like that and they\u2019re as well-prepared as they are, you know you\u2019re doing some good things.\u201d
Noah LaPorte got in on the fun in the third quarter, scoring 10 of his 14 points. In a season of highlight reels, the sophomore forward may have had the best dunk of all when he slammed a one-handed, tip-in dunk to give the Tigers a 57-26 lead midway through the third quarter.
Princeton’s Noah LaPorte shoots against Newman Friday night at Prouty Gym. The Tigers won 80-32. <\/span>(Mike vaughn)
LaPorte said it was all a reaction.
\u201cI\u2019ve always wanted a put-down dunk, and there it was,\u201d LaPorte said.
\u201cIt\u2019s about time he did a dunk like that. Been waiting for that,\u201d Davis said with a smile.
Smith said the dunk was an eye-opener.
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t expected. I think that\u2019s what makes it better,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t ever expect a tip-dunk from a high schooler, especially at a 2A school, so that\u2019s pretty special.
After the dunk, the Tigers scored the last 12 points of the third quarter, capped by a Davis layup off an assist by Thompson to take a 69-28 lead at quarter\u2019s end.
Sharp has coached his share of good teams and seen his share of them. He was very impressed with the Tigers.
\u201cPrinceton has a great team, and is very well-coached. They\u2019re not just athletes, they\u2019re good basketball players,\u201d he said. \u201cWe did not match their intensity. We let them be more physical than us and let their physicality take us out of our game.\u201d
The Comets coach said the Tigers are poised to make a deep postseason run.
\u201cThey\u2019re No. 1 in the state for a reason, right?\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019ve got the athletes and coaches and players to win it. Hopefully, they don\u2019t stumble.\u201d
Lucas Simpson led the Comets with 16 points.
Smith said he always thinks they can play better, but said that\u2019s the best game for the Tigers since Thanksgiving.
\u201cCouple things we could have done defensively better. I think we can be finishing more at the basket a little bit better. Outside of that, I\u2019m just nit-picking,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought we played really well. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve played this well since over at Ottawa against Pontiac. That\u2019s the last complete game we\u2019ve played. We\u2019ve shown signs when we\u2019ve put a quarter or two together, but not four quarters like this.\u201d
Tiger tales<\/b>: The Tigers will play Pleasant Plains (21-6) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Riverton Shootout. It\u2019s the Tigers\u2019 first appearance at Riverton since playing in 2010 and 2011, going 0-2. \u201cI think it\u2019s important for us to play well,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe kids want it. I think they want to show everybody they\u2019re deserving of [the No. 1 ranking]. And we saw tonight what they\u2019re capable of doing.\u201d … Princeton won the sophomore game 41-32 behind Jordan Reinhardt (19 points) and Luke Smith (12). The Kittens (24-4) finished as co-champs in the TRAC East with Kewanee at 11-1.
Princeton’s Teegan Davis corrals a rebound against Newman Friday night at Prouty Gym. <\/span>(Mike Vaughn)
Kevin has been sports editor of the BCR since 1986 and is Sports Editor of Putnam County Record. Was previously sports editor of the St. Louis Daily News and a regular contributor for the St. Louis Cardinals Magazine. He is a member of the IBCA and Illinois Valley Hall of Fames. He is one of 4 sportswriters from his tiny hometown Atlanta, IL<\/p>\n

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The Princeton bench celebrates a Tiger basket during Friday’s 80-32 win over Newman at Prouty Gym. The Tigers clinched their first conference championship in 13 years by going 12-0 in the Three Rivers East. (Mike Vaughn)In a season with many first and new records, the Princeton Tigers enjoyed another milestone Friday at Prouty Gymnasium.The Class 2A No. 1-ranked Tigers rode<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8232\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/princetonillinois.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}