Kittens defend tourney title

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The Princeton sophomores defended their tournament title at Kewanee Wethersfield, capping a 4-0 run with a 66-17 win over Stark County on Saturday.

The Kittens are 8-0 after two years at Wethersfield and have now won 26 straight games on the heels of last year’s 22-0 finish.

“It’s always nice to repeat. (But) it’s a new ballclub,” PHS coach Paul Robinson said. “Kids played hard and well. The best part was to be able to play all the kids in all the games and get a lot of minutes for a lot of kids. We’ve got a lot of depth and good balance. Practices will be competitive and help us in the long run.”

Jensen Pinter had 11 points for the Kittens, Jimmy Ferrell and Blair Bickett had 10 each.

PHS will play in the sophomore tournament at Stillman Valley starting on Saturday. The Kittens are also the defending champions at that tournament.

• All-tournament: Princeton’s Scott Roseberg, Gar-rett Youngren and Brandon Dressler were selected to the all-tournament team at Wethersfield. The MVP honors had some home flavor with Nathan Kohler of the Flying Geese.

Other all-tournament picks included Ian VanAn-twerp of Wethersfield, Albert Fields and Terry Mercer of Kewanee, Kevin Fay and Anthony Ahlers of Putnam County.

• Coming and going: Kewanee will be leaving the Wethersfield tournament next season, leaving the city limits to travel to Orion. The two Kewanee rivals will no longer play each other during the season though they are just a few city blocks apart.

While Kewanee makes its exit, the Bureau Valley Storm and Elmwood will make their entrance in next year’s tournament at Wethersfield, athletic director Gene Hulick said. Stark County, which reached the state finals in football this season and had a depleted basketball squad last week, has talked about getting out of Thanksgiving tournament play as early as next year.

Next year’s field at Wethersfield would have either five or six teams, maintaining a round-robin format with three games a night, Hulick said. The F/S teams would play pool play with a cross-over finals day.

Bureau Valley athletic director Eric Lawson said Stillman Valley will be taking Bureau Valley’s place in the Sauk Valley Shootout.

• Tiger tails: Princeton will play their next three games on the road at Mendota, Stark County and Rock Falls, before making its home debut on Dec. 13 against Dixon. That game will be their only home appearance in the 2008 portion of the season. The next will be Jan. 6 vs. their friends from Spring Valley Hall.

Counting four games coming up in the new Kewanee 2A Holiday Tournament from Dec. 15-20, the Tigers will have played eight games within the Kewanee city limits (11 total away) and just one in the comforts of home.

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