Tigers topple Panthers

KEWANEE— The Tigers quickly found a formula for success Tuesday night at the Wally Keller Invitational hosted by Kewanee Wethersfield.

Adding one part defense to the subtraction of six Putnam County players equals a 66-22 win.

Princeton jumped out to an insurmountable 23-6 lead after one quarter of action. The Tigers throttled an undermanned Panther squad, who were missing six recruits to athletic code violations, including three potential starters. The Tigers used a full-court zone pressure that at times featured 6-7 center Ryan Vrana as the first line of attack.

The senior big man not only wreaked havoc on defense with his long wingspan, he dropped in eight first-quarter points en route to finishing with 14 in the contest, which led all scorers.

“I was very happy with our energy and our effort. In a game like that, you can kind of get like you’re going through the motions, and I don’t think we let up the entire game,” said PHS coach Jesse Brandt.

Brandt was once again able to call all of his troops into action, as all 14 active Tigers saw substantial playing time in the lopsided contest, with 10 landing in the scoring column.

Junior guard Michael Murray was second-leading scorer for the Tigers, with nine points on the evening. Murray said that the Tigers defense deserved a lot of credit for the win.

“We came out strong and put the press on them and made them do turnovers,” said Murray. “They made a lot of turnovers (21 in the first half alone), and we countered that with a lot of points.”

Junior guard Blair Bickett and senior center Scott Hult each added eight points for the Tigers, who led 38-11 at half, and 56-14 after three quarters.

For Putnam County, junior Brett Crite led the way with seven points; sophomore Cody Bornemann added six.

“We’re short handed with some code violations; we don’t have all our bodies that we need to play, and we’ve got kids that are normally five to seven minute kids that are now playing 25 minutes,” said Putnam County coach Jeff Herkelman. “They’re frustrated when they get beat like this.”