Key 3s and free throws
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| Princeton’s Lance Jensen sends Rock Falls’ Jace Anderson crashing on a second-half drive. The Tigers won 63-48. (BCR photo/Mike Vaughn) |
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PRINCETON — Some key 3-pointers and free throws down the stretch Friday night proved to cure what’s ailed the Princeton Tigers of late.
Austen Stewart and Lance Jensen hit back-to-back 3-pointers to extend the Tigers lead to 48-36 at the end of the third quarter. From there, Princeton sank 11 of 14 free throws to nail down a 63-48 win.
“I remember coach saying, we’ve got to put it to them, take their heart out,” said PHS senior Jacob Fisher, who did just that with a game-high 23 points, 13 rebounds, five assists and five steals.
Fisher said the win couldn’t come at a better time for the Tigers.
“It’s a big turnaround for our season right now,” he said. “We’ve just had three terrible games defensively and offensively. We wanted to come back on our homecourt and show our home crowd what we can actually do.
“I know Rock Fall’s isn’t having a great season, but they have such a solid program year in and year out, any time you can sweep you’ve got to feel happy,” PHS coach Jesse Brandt said of the varsity/sophomore sweep.
The Tigers (11-12) led by as much as nine points in the first half, using a 6-0 run with two free throws by Fisher and baskets by Fisher and Cole Evenson to go up 25-16. The Rockets’ Steven Armoska scored six points down the stretch as the Rockets closed within 30-25 at halftime.
Brandon Cain sank 3-4 free throws to put the Rockets within 40-36 with 1:40 left in the third. Josh Kieffer scored on a putback before Stewart knocked down a 3 from the right corner with 0:40 left and Jensen played beat the buzzer with a 3 from the left corner to make it 48-36 at quarter’s end.
Fisher used what he calls one of his “D-Rose” moves on the baseline drive to cap an 8-0 run to start the fourth quarter up 50-36.
“I think the difference in the game was the back-to-back threes to end the third quarter ... that was a huge momentum for us,” Tiger coach Jesse Brandt said.
Rock Falls coach Scott Olson said the Rockets just didn’t perform their defensive assignments.
“We gambled way too much on defense has been our story all year,” he said. “We’ve got our assignments and supposed to be in a good stand, and then all of a sudden, we started leaving it and that’s maturity. You got to do a better job of it. When we stay within ourselves, which has happened a lot, we play good defense.”
Brandt, on the other hand, said the Tigers had one of their better defensive efforts in a while.
“We really worked hard on defense in practice and it seemed to carry over tonight. It helped they didn’t make many shots, but I think we were a part of that,” he said.
The Tigers’ annual free throw-a-thon in practice the past week couldn’t have come at a better time. Overall they shot 78 percent Friday, sinking 21-27.
“We’re doing the 500 free throws for donation. Been shooting a lot of free throws. It’s helping our percentages. It’s helping me out,” said Fisher, who made 8 of 10 attempts.
“We’ve been shooting a lot of free throws in practice. Been shooting 50 a day for the last week and a half probably. Maybe it’s carrying over, I don’t know,” Brandt said. “We’ve gone from not shooting any at times to try to get out of slumps to shooting a lot. You never know. Guys made them tonight.”
Jace Anderson led the Rockets (11-12) with 15 points and Armoksa added 12.
• Tiger tales: The sophomores complete the sweep with a 60-57 win in the sophomore game. Garrett Duffin poured in 26 points and J.J. Vaccaro added 15. ... The Tigers travel to the Storm Cellar to play Bureau Valley on Tuesday.
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