Mount Hope Christian head coach Quinton Runyon knew his team faced a tall task against Class AAAA Princeton Friday afternoon in the opening round of the Little General Battle for the Armory.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, he was correct.
Racing out to a 20-0 lead after the first quarter, the Tigers overpowered Mt. Hope in the paint and smothered them on defense on their way to 76-34 win.
Princeton advances to the championship game of the Pepsi division where it will play the winner of James Monroe-Oak Hill at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Warriors move to the consolation round at 2 p.m against the loser.
“The frustrating part for me was that we just didn’t do what we do consistently enough. They are bigger than us and quicker than us. They are more experienced than us. We start basically all underclassmen, so it is an uphill battle almost everywhere we go,” Runyon said. “Give Princeton all credit in the world. They blitzed us and shot well. They killed us on the boards and probably had more offensive rebounds than we had rebounds. We were able to play well in the second quarter and do more of what we do and it showed.”
Five points from Zayden Neeley and four from Daniel Jennings helped push the lead to 11-0 with 4:43 to play in the opening quarter.
The biggest lead of the first half was 22-0 after Nick Bailey converted a stickback to open the second quarter.
“We started out strong. The intensity still wasn’t there, but anytime you can hold a high school team to zero points, you have to be pleased,” Princeton head coach Robb Williams said. “We thought we would have an advantage underneath, and we did. Obviously that was good.”
For the final six minutes of the half however, Mt. Hope regrouped and ran with the Tigers.
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Talan Caron and Malachi Flohr cured the drought for the Warriors, who played even the remainder of the half with Princeton, trailing 34-18 at the break.
“Second quarter was terrible. No intensity and we were flat as can be. We addressed that at halftime,” Williams said. “One of the things that I can’t stand is lack of effort. Missed shots happen, but if you don’t get back and work hard, you are not going to play many minutes for me. They understand that. Give Mt. Hope credit, they played hard and didn’t crumble”
Over the first 16 minutes, the Mercer County boys held a 22-4 edge in rebounds, 13 coming on the offensive glass. When the final horn sounded, the advantage was 48-14 with 30 rebounds on the offensive end.
“What you can’t simulate for us in practice is the length and the speed. It is not just that they are strong, they are long,” Runyon said. “That hurts us a little bit and this is a big environment. The ball sounds different in here. The noises are different. That is probably some of it too.
Coming out of the break, Princeton amped up its defense to another level and put the game to bed with a second explosive quarter.
Forced turnovers led to a quick 8-0 spurt by the Tigers before Trey Williams knocked down a 3-ball to break the run for Mt. Hope.
Williams’ bucket, however, was the only bright spot of the quarter for the Warriors
Over the final 5:44 of the third stanza, Princeton scored 14 points, while pitching another shutout on defense to take a 60-21 lead.
“That has been a challenge for us every game this year. I think some of this is our age,” Runyon said. “Third quarters, we start a little slow, so I was a little apprehensive. If it started to go bad, it could go bad really fast, and it did. It didn’t shock me, but was a little disappointing.”
The win was the second of the season for Princeton which had a late start due to a highly successful football season.
“Mt. Hope had played as many games as we have practiced,” Williams emphasized. “We are still a very young team. We returned one starter, but we have been very happy with the bigs. All I need is two of those guys to click and tonight we had two that played really solid.”
Jayce Gumm paced the Tigers with a double-double, scoring 18 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Britt Beasley added 15 points and had five steals. Zayden Neeley added 13 points and hauled down 10 rebounds.
“The reason we play Princeton is that, one, it is a tremendous opportunity. Two, it helps us get better as the year goes on,” Runyon said. “Not a lot of schools we play have that kind of length, but the best schools have some of that. For us to be competitive, this gives us a chance. Even though things didn’t go as planned, we did some things well. We will take the little nuggets and hopefully build some confidence.’
