Rockford Christian bows out with loss to Princeton in sectionals
MENDOTA — The Rockford Christian Royal Lions and their electrifying guards are out.
Although they wouldn’t die without a fight, it was not the Royal Lions’ night. Led by Noah LaPorte, Princeton’s 6-5, 210-pound junior post player, the Tigers pulled ahead early and fended off Rockford Christian’s strong push down the stretch for a 69-66 win in the Class 2A Mendota Sectional semifinal on Tuesday night.
LaPorte shot 13-for-24 from the floor (54 percent), had two tip-ins and a dunk, and scored 28 points and hauled in 12 rebounds. And he helped keep this flashy Royal Lions’ team from ever getting into a rhythm — at least, not until it was too late.
“They had a solid, powerful big man (LaPorte), and he beat us on the boards a lot, and those second-chance points hurt,” Rockford Christian’s junior point guard Christian Cummings said after he scored 22 points and had five steals. “But we had a chance at the end. I mean, that’s pretty big, after what we went through.”
Guards Elijah Daugherty (17 points and three assists) and J.T. Samuels (eight points and five rebounds) had their moments for Rockford Christian on Tuesday. But Princeton (17-15), a team that had lost seven of nine around the midseason point and dropped three in a row headed into the postseason, stayed hot at the right time and advanced to Friday’s sectional finals. The Tigers will play the winner of the Byron-Port Byron Riverdale semifinal, which will take place on Wednesday night.
The Tigers edged Bureau Valley (6356) and Morrison (57-55) to get to sectionals, and they extended their season with what turned out to be another
close one down the stretch.
Rockford Christian shot just 44 percent (27-for-62) from the field and 5for-20 (25 percent) from 3-point range, but still found a way to scratch and claw and have a chance at the end. Princeton got its first double-digit lead at 29-19 on a baseline move from Daniel Sousa (21 points), and its last one at 52-41 with under a minute left in the third quarter on a LaPorte jumper in the paint.
“We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we normally did, and we didn’t play good defense at times tonight either,” Rockford Christian (23-8) head coach
Isaiah Johnson said. “I’ve told them, at this stage, everybody is good. And we have to be focused; laser focused. And we weren’t laser focused tonight.”
They found their mojo for a brief moment late in the fourth, and it almost produced their sweetest comeback of the year. It started when Cummings nabbed a steal and dished out a nolook, behind-the-back assist to Chase Longley, who had all six of his points in the fourth quarter. Daugherty then hit a step-back 3-pointer with 3:05 left in the game that tied it up at 60-all.
That was the first tie or lead change since the 3-minute mark of the first quarter.
Cummings had another doubleclutch floater in the lane that went in with 1:11 left as well. But Princeton kept finding an answer, and the Tigers and
LaPorte kept the lead for the final 2:40.
“What can you do,” Cummings added. “Me and my guys, we came out here and we played our hearts out... It just wasn’t enough to come out with the Dub tonight.”
Brody Carlson added eight rebounds for the Royal Lions, but Princeton shot 56 percent (30-for-54) from the field in the game, and it was the Tigers who found a way to stay alive.
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and follow him on Twitter at @JayTaft. Sign up for the Rockford High School newsletter at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a wide variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears to youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star, and for over 30 years all together.