Gallery by Heather Belcher
Beckley – It had been 18 days since Princeton crossed the 90-point threshold.
That number is back to 0.
The Tigers jumped out to a 13-0 lead Wednesday at the Little General Battle for the Armory, downing Mount Hope Christian 99-47 at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.
With the win Princeton advances to the Pepsi Championship game where it will face Wyoming East on Thursday at 4 P.M.
For Princeton coach Robb Williams there was little to be concerned about. His Tigers won a game he expected them to in dominant fashion while highlighting their strengths.
“We shot well,” Williams said. “You’re expected to shoot better than a team that you have a larger class than. I was happy with the overall effort again. Our transition offense was pretty solid and we can run. I was a little unhappy with the overall defense. They had 47 points but two of their guys had 41. They were shooting from way out there but those two can score.”
The Warriors of Mount Hope Christian struggled throughout the day, especially early. Their first field goal didn’t come until just under three minutes left in the first quarter, a point at which they were already down 18-1.
A 3-pointer from Nolan Carney snapped the skid before Princeton’s Nic Flemming answered with a pair of buckets to make it a 22-4 game.
From there Mount Hope’s Josiah McKoy found the range, draining a pair of 3s before the end of the quarter that helped trim the deficit to 16 points. The lefty retained his stroke early in the second quarter with another 3 followed by a shot by Nolan Carney that cut the lead to 11.
“It’s funny because they get mad when you sub them out,” Williams said. “I told them at halftime ‘Fellas, I just want to be able to sit back and not yell.’ I really don’t enjoy having to yell. My way of motivating in games like this is if you’re playing well with energy and it doesn’t mean you’re scoring, all of them can score but if they’re giving me energy, hitting the boards and playing defense – if you have your hand up and a guy hits it I’m not going to be mad. But we got a little lackadaisical, a couple of them did, so I took them out and we all came out with a lot more energy in the second half. Sometimes they forget I’ve got a long bench where I can play anybody and when they remember that it turns it up on them. I just want us to have a good effort.”
The Warriors hung around, trading buckets to keep it within 12 until a Chase Hancock 3, one of four he made on the afternoon, found the bottom of the net to push the lead back to 15.
A pair of layups from Koen Sartin sandwiched a Carney 3 that made it a 40-24 game before Princeton’s Kris Joyce swung the game back to the Tigers for good.
A pair of layups and a 3 from the senior capped a personal 7-0 run that put the Tigers up 47-24. The lead never dropped below 20 the rest of the way.
Ten different Tigers scored with four reaching double figures. Joyce and Hancock led the way notching 18 each while Carney led all scorers with 22 for Mount Hope Christian.
“There’s no starters,” Williams said. “I know all the parents want their kids to start and I appreciate that but the truth is I don’t have five starters. I have 10 basketball players and my hardest thing, and I told them at halftime, is truly trying to find minutes for them. That’s the hard thing about coaching this team but we’re doing the things we’re supposed to do and beating the teams we’re supposed to beat but we’ve got to beat the teams like we’re playing tomorrow – the Charleston Catholics or Wyoming Easts and the Capitals like we’re playing next week.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94
