PERU — Princeton made a significant improvement from a 49-6 defeat at the hands of Mendota on Dec. 6, falling to the top-seeded Lady Trojans 57-26 in the opening day of the Lady Bruins Christmas Classic at St. Bede Academy.

Lexi Marselle’s three-pointer at the buzzer brought PHS within 27-14 at halftime. The halftime score in the teams’ first meeting was 30-0.

“We had a 42-point turnaround at half, so we were really pleased with that,” PHS coach Kevin Hieronymus said. “Mendota’s a great team, but our girls knew we are a better team than we showed before. And today they came out and proved it. We just seemed to run out of gas again in the third quarter. The girls keep battling, and I’m really proud of them.”