Little Tiger boys basketball pulls away from Steinert
By Bob Nuse, Sport Editor
Times have changed since Davon Black first walked on the floor as a freshman for the Princeton High boys basketball team.
”It’s hard now that it is almost done,” said Black, a senior captain for the Little Tigers. “I remember coming in as a freshman and thinking all these guys are so big. And now I am a big guy and one of the guys the team looks up to. I know I can’t sulk when I have a bad game. I have to try to keep everyone encouraged and be a leader.”
Black has been with the Princeton varsity team for four years and as his career with the Little Tigers winds down, he’s hoping to leave a lasting imprint and help the team to a winning season.
”Playing freshman year with (DeQuan Holman) and then after that, I have been learning a lot from the guys who have been here before me like ‘Quan, Skye Ettin and Devon Holman,” said Black, who scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half to help Princeton to a 61-48 win over Steinert on Friday night.
”They taught me so much and I am just trying to live up to the reputation that seniors have. I think it is clicking right now for us. With me and Matt (Hoffman) leading, I think the younger guys look to us and if we are playing well the guys seem to go.”
Princeton improved to 6-7 with the win. The Little Tigers are a relatively young team with Black and Hoffman as the only senior starters. They have been up and down most of the season, with the win over Steinert moving them a little closer to the .500 mark.
”We do have some young guys,” Princeton coach Jason Carter said. “Even though the roster says junior, we have some guys who this is their first time as varsity athletes. They are just getting their feet wet and getting a little bit more experience that we will hopefully see down the road. We’re taking it one step at a time and we have had some really good practices the last few days.”
In the win over Steinert, Hoffman had 16 points and Lior Levy came off the bench to add 13 for the balanced Little Tigers. There were contributions from throughout the roster, but in the end it was the Princeton defense that made the difference.
”We just wanted to play the passing lanes and cut down the lanes and get some deflections,” said Carter, whose team will play at Ewing tonight. “We hoped that would lead to some turnovers and maybe to some fast-break points. We wanted to play more of an up and down game.”
Added Black: “It was a game of runs. We knew they were going to go on some runs and we were going to go on some runs. We had a bigger push at the end. They were a good team and we knew it would not be easy.”
The Little Tigers trailed, 22-20, early in the second half when they went on a 12-5 run to grab a 32-27 lead. It was 34-31 when they went on a 10-0 run for a 44-31 lead to break the game open.
”We’re young,” Black said. “We got back to playing tough defense and that is what our coach preaches to us, that we need to play good defense.
”We only have four seniors and we have a couple juniors who are stepping up. Christopher Giles when he is getting in the game is giving us some big minutes. Scott (Bechler) has been controlling things as the point guard. We are young but we’re doing well.”