Marco, Polo!

Princeton sophomore Scott Roseberg takes the shot against the Polo defense Tuesday at Forreston. Roseberg led the way with 14 fourth-quarter points as PHS outscored Polo 29-7 to rally for a 55-54 comeback win. (BCR photo/Brad Martin)

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FORRESTON — Halfway through the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s tournament action at Forreston, Polo head coach Matt Messer called a timeout to talk to his team about giving up easy baskets against Princeton. About that time, Messer yelled “They (Princeton) are not that good.”

Quickly realizing the gym was very quiet, and many probably heard what he had just said, Messer tried to backtrack, and said, “Well they are OK, but not great.”

Not sure if the Tigers heard those words ... but they outscored the Marcos 29-7 in the fourth quarter to make an improbable comeback from 21 points down for a 55-54 victory at the Forreston Holiday tournament.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” Tigers coach Jesse Brandt said. “We just turned it on in the fourth and got the win.”

That win Tuesday night sent the Tigers into a consolation battle with Lena-Winslow Wednesday night. This time the Tigers fell in a close call to the Panthers 51-48

Entering the final eight minutes of Tuesday’s game, Princeton trailed Polo 47-26, and with foul trouble that began in the first quarter.

Junior forward Scott Roseberg picked up two fouls early in the game and was a bit hesitant in his play until the fourth quarter when he came alive, scoring 14 of his game-high 18 points.

“A big difference was, if you looked at our shot chart, everything was in the lane,” Brandt said. “We were in foul trouble, and Scott Roseberg was part of that, but he took it strong to the basket and created some momentum.”

Roseberg got a stickback and made the free throw to cut the Marcos lead to 47-34.

Shortly after, senior guard Jason Englehart stole the ball, twice, and cut the lead to 49-42 which capped off a 16-2 run for the Tigers.

With Polo now leading 51-44, Roseberg got the rebound off his own miss and converted an old fashioned three-point play to make it a 51-47 deficit.

Brandon Dressler, Brik Wedekind and Jon Henegar all penetrated the Polo defense and got the ball inside to Roseberg, who then cut the lead to 53-51, with time running out.

A reoccurring theme of Roseberg converting the layup now had the Tigers down 54-53, but on the inbound pass, it was Englehart, again, with his fourth steal and layup, to take a 55-54 lead, with 10 seconds left.

“I tell you what, that kid is a pest,” Brandt said laughing. “I don’t know how many steals he had, but he was outstanding in the fourth quarter. His defense got things started for us.”

“We weren’t playing that smart of defense in the first half,” Englehart said. “I though we really gave them a lot of easy points in that first half, but we were able to turn things around in the fourth quarter and get the win.”

Matt Scholl had a couple good looks at the basket, but nothing fell through as the Tigers took a 55-54 victory in the consolation bracket of the Forreston tournament.

“Our problem all year has been we haven’t finished games off,” Roseberg said. “Tonight we had a big fourth quarter and finished off the game when we got the lead late. Jason Englehart was also just huge for us on defense tonight.”

The game could not have started any worse for the Tigers than it did in the first quarter.

It was clear, early on, that the Tigers were going to be in foul trouble early and often.

Within the first two and a half minutes of the game, the Tigers had three guys on the bench with at least two fouls each.

The Tigers had good shots, but just could not get the ball to fall, and the Marcos took advantage and pressed the ball up the floor and right to the basket.

Polo led 9-2 at the end of the first quarter. Then in the second quarter, Henegar hit two three-point shots late to get PHS within six, at 23-17, at the break.

With the help of three long-range shots, Polo went up 47-26 heading into the final quarter of action.

Roseberg led all scoring with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Englehart and Garrett Youngren each had eight points for the Tigers.

• On Wednesday, it was the Tigers who took a big lead (15-4 after a quarter) and couldn’t hold on, outscored by Lena 29-23 in the second half. Youngren had a season-high 14 points and Zach Smith added eight.

The Tigers will face Pecatonica, a 63-59 loser to Aquin, at 8 p.m. Thursday for 11th place.

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