Waubonsie Valley topples Batavia to win Peddy crown

After steamrolling through its first three opponents at the Ken Peddy Batavia Basketball Windmill City Classic earlier in the week, Waubonsie Valley was expecting a tougher test on Saturday against the host Bulldogs, who had also easily won their first 3 games.

Well, the Warriors had all the right answers and passed the test with flying colors as they cruised to a 56-31 victory to capture the tournament title with a perfect 4-0 record.

Eric Cannon, who was named the tournament's most valuable player, scored a game-high 21 points to lead the Warriors. Derrien Porter added 10 points.

"I'm really excited for these kids," Waubonsie coach Jason Mead said. "This is a senior laden group and last year they came up on the short end of a lot of close games. But they have had a great mindset coming into this year and they are really playing hard. This was a great week for us, but nobody wants the pinnacle of their season to be in November. So, we want to continue to build on this."

The Warriors got off to a fast start as Porter, Cannon, and Marcus Skeete knocked down consecutive 3-pointers out the gate as Waubonsie jumped out to a 9-2 lead. Later in the quarter Cannon and Skeete added 3-point plays to help extend the lead to 19-7.

Cannon really caught fire in the second quarter, knocking down three 3-pointers as Waubonsie continued to pull away to a 37-14 halftime lead.

"The biggest thing I have been working on is my jump shot," Cannon said. "I'm shooting with a lot more confidence. I've also been putting an emphasis on being a leader and helping build this team a community. It was an exciting week, but we want to stay humble and continue to get better."

The Warriors shot a scorching 13 of 18 (72 percent) from the field in the first half while holding to Batavia to just 3 of 16 (19 percent) from the field.

"You have to hand it to Waubonsie," Batavia coach Jim Nazos said. "They have a really good team and got after us in a lot of ways. I think we saw tonight we are still a work in progress. I'm very optimistic and saw a lot of good things this week, but I also saw a lot of things we still need to work on."

Marko Yager, Kyle Neibch and Jayden Johnson were all named to the all-tournament team for Batavia.