MENDOTA — As it has done throughout the entire postseason, Byron’s defense was the deciding factor on Friday evening, when the No. 1 seeded Tigers battled the No. 4 seeded Princeton Tigers in the IHSA 2A Mendota Sectional Boys Basketball Championship game.
In a battle of the Tigers, it was the underdog Princeton who took control early in the first half, where they controlled the offensive glass and leaned on 6-foot-6 forward Noah LaPorte, who hammered home a pair of slam dunks and snagged multiple offensive rebounds. But Byron proved to be the strongest in the end, as the Tigers stifled Princeton with their three-quarter court pressure and took the game over with a series of layups and points off turnovers.
Byron held Princeton to just four points in the third quarter and continued to extend its lead in the fourth quarter, where the Tigers surged ahead by as many as 20 points and ultimately cruised to a 59-43 win on Friday. It’s Byron’s first sectional championship since 2007, when the Tigers went 29-2 and reached the Elite Eight under former head coach Ryan Webber.
“Our kids have done a great job of adapting on the fly and executing our game plans,” Byron head coach Matt Huels said. “We’ve really gotten our ball pressure going and that’s created a lot of turnovers. We held [Noah] LaPorte to five points in the second half and that was a collective effort by our kids who were guarding him in the man-to-man defense. We’ve been able to make these runs during our games because our kids have bought in on the defensive end.”
Byron (29-2, 8-1 Big Northern) trailed early in the game, as the Tigers struggled to hold the Princeton Tigers (17-16, 7-3 Three Rivers) off on the interior, where they scored nearly all of their first-half points. Despite entering the second quarter trailing 13-9, Byron fought its way back into the game behind a strong defensive effort in the three-quarter court setting, where the Tigers used their length to deflect passes and generate steals that led to easy layups.
“It feels awesome and we had a lot of fun tonight,” sophomore guard Cason Newton said. “I’m very proud of our team and we’re just going to keep going… We had to box them out in the second half and we knew that all five of us on the court had to rebound. We played with more energy in the second half and we won the game because we were able to push the ball. We’re so long on defense and when we’re getting steals, our opponents become flustered by it.”
A buzzer-beating layup from senior guard Ryan Tucker, who led Byron with 26 points on 12 made field goals including 11 layups, allowed the Tigers to edge Princeton 24-23 at halftime. Byron opened the third quarter on an 8-2 run, forcing a Princeton timeout as the energy in the orange bleachers began to take over the gymnasium. Byron outscored Princeton 14-4 in the third quarter to take their first double-digit lead of the game, 38-27, entering the fourth quarter.
Unlike Wednesday’s semifinal game against No. 3 seed Riverdale, who mounted a brief rally behind an 11-0 run late in the second half, Byron dominated the fourth quarter, with the Tigers continuing to deflect passes and force Princeton turnovers with their ball pressure. The defense led to more runouts and easy layups for players like Tucker and senior forward Jack Hiveley, who finished with 16 points including 12 points in the second half to clinch the sectional win.
“We’re trying to make history,” Hiveley said. “We didn’t start the game how we wanted to, but we calmed ourselves down in the second half and we were able to put them away. We talked about rebounding at halftime and we knew that we all needed to rebound because they were hurting us on the boards. We did a better job in the second half and that’s how we were able to win. We’ve shut teams down with our defense throughout the postseason and we have a great press in the frontcourt. We didn’t shoot great tonight, but we defended and we finished at the rim.”
Newton chipped in six points and senior forward Braylon Kilduff added four first-quarter points for the Tigers, who will advance to the IHSA 2A Sterling Super Sectional on Monday at 7 p.m. Byron will face either Chicago Latin or Chicago Christ the King in the Elite Eight round.
The Tigers are seeking to make more history on Monday, as Byron has never won a super sectional game in the program’s history. The Tigers made their last super sectional appearance during the 2006-07 season, when Byron fell 43-30 against Granville Putnam County.
“We talked at halftime about how we didn’t want this to be our last 16 minutes of basketball because we decided not to rebound,” Huels said. “I thought kids like Jack [Hiveley], Caden [Considine] and Braylon [Kilduff] did a great job and our guards were getting down there too. Our rebounds were what allowed us to start our transition offense.”
