Tigers tear through Bears

NEW LONDON — When New London and Danville meet on the hardwood, it’s sure to be a battle and the same can be said the of two Class 1A Region 4 first round bout on Monday night.

In the latest installment of contests between the two squads, the Tigers picked up the win when it mattered most, 78-49. New London has now won eight straight against the Bears dating back to 2020.

The Tigers jumped on the Bears early and never let off the gas in an all around efficient night of basketball.

Danville opened the scoring with a two, but that would be the Bear’s only lead of the night.

Blaise Porter, Kade Benjamin and Brendan Richey scored a trio of buckets to put the Tigers on top 6-2.

Danville was able to tie it at 7-7 and bring it to one at 10-9 with 1:20 to go in the first, but the Tigers began to pull away from then on out.

Richey buried a three and Benjamin scored a lay-in the final minute to give the Tigers a 15-9 lead at the end of the first.

“We just came out and said, this is our last go we just have to give it our all,” New London senior guard Blaise Porter said.

Out of the gate in the second, the Tigers hit back-to-back threes which kicked off a 10-2 run to push their lead to 25-11.

The Bears scored just two points in three and a half minutes in second quarter.

From that point on, New London outscored the Bears 12-11 to make it 37-22 at the half.

Out of the break, Danville scored five straight to bring it to 10 at 37-27. The Bears would score just six points the rest of the way out.

“That was super important for us (to jump on them),” New London head coach Bryant Porter said. “That was our plan. It was to jump on them and then just turn up the pressure. We thought they might try taking long shots, which leads to long boards and I thought we did a great job on the boards.”

Following the run by the Bears, five straight from Porter marked the beginning of a 20-6 run to the end of the quarter.

Heading into the fourth, the Tigers led 57-33.

In the fourth, the Bears were never able to come back and the Tigers closed it out with a 21-16 final quarter.

Porter led the Tigers with 29 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists in the win. Brendan Richey followed with 16 points. Rylan Martin tallied 15 and Kade Benjamin had 12 points, along with 10 blocks and eight boards in his return to the Tigers lineup from injury. Memphis Watson, Tate Welcher and Carter Benjamin all had two.

The Tigers shot a fantastic 66% from the field (31-47) and 60% from three (9/15) in the win as well.

With the win, the Tigers (16-6) advance to take on WACO (21-1) in round two. In the two’s previous meeting, the Warriors edged the Tigers 68-64.

“Going into that game (against WACO) we just have to play our game,” Blaise Porter said. “We just have to go out and give it our all and the results will play out.”