At the Princeton Holiday Tournament on Tuesday, the host Tigresses rolled to another victory, while Hall and Mendota opened their seasons.

Princeton scored the game’s first 48 points on the way to a 73-3 win over Putnam County.

“I thought we played really well,” Princeton junior Madie Gibson said. “Our hustle was great. Our communication was amazing. Just overall I thought we played amazing.”

Mendota lost its opener 52-6 to IVC, while Hall defeated Stark County 31-21.

“It gets us off to a good start winning our first game,” Hall senior Charlie Pellegrini said.

Hall 31, Stark County 21: The Red Devils played a strong defensive game as they held the Rebels to 21 points on 15% shooting while forcing 32 turnovers.

However, Hall had trouble getting its own offense going as it shot 20.8% from the field and had 21 turnovers.

“I thought our energy was pretty good for the first game,” Hall coach TJ Orlandi said. “I thought we were pretty active defensively. We caused a lot of turnovers. So that part was good. We were just having trouble converting. We were up 13 at half and we talked at halftime that we maybe could have been up 20. I thought we were just missing some layups in transition, shots in the paint and some free throws.

“I’m happy getting that first win in the first game. It’s not always pretty, but I tell the girls, you never apologize for a win. You take it and move on.”

The Red Devils led 9-4 after the first quarter and pushed their lead to as many as 16 points in the second quarter.

Hall went up double digits for the first time at 14-4 on a 3-pointer by Bernadette Larsen.

A fast break bucket and two free throws by Leah Pelka made it 18-4 and a jumper by Natalia Zamora pushed it to 20-4 before the Red Devils went into the break up 20-7.

The Red Devils couldn’t maintain the momentum in the third quarter as they managed just two points in the period and had a stretch of nine straight turnovers as Stark County pulled within 22-15.

“I thought for a few minutes where we got a little panicked and we were just kind of rushing things,” Orlandi said. “Everybody was trying to do a little too much. Between the third and fourth quarters, we talked about how we had to calm down, run the offense, keep creating turnovers and try to get some baskets there.”

That’s what the Red Devils did as they forced nine turnovers in the fourth, while Pellegrini came up with some key baskets.

She drained a 3-pointer for a 27-15 lead and scored on a reverse layup for a 29-17 advantage.

“We just tried to focus more on slowing it down,” Pellegrini said. “We tried to relax and just play how we usually do.”

Pelka and Pellegrini led the Red Devils with nine points each. Hall plays Thursday against Mendota and Friday against IVC.

Princeton 73, Putnam County 3: The Tigresses used their pressure defense to force turnovers on the Panthers’ first 12 possessions and on 22 of 25 possessions in the first quarter.

Princeton led 25-0 after the first eight minutes, shutting out its opponent in the first quarter for the second game in a row.

“That’s really been a point of emphasis starting last year,” Princeton coach Tiffany Gonigam said. “Bringing coach (Michael) Fredericks on board, that’s something he’s really passionate about. Sometimes it takes time, but you can really tell that this year, after having a year under their belts, that the girls are really buying into that passion. You can tell they’ve put a lot of work into it.”

The Tigresses converted the turnovers into transition points.

“We talked about playing fast,” Gonigam said. “That’s always going to be a goal of ours, make or miss from the opponent. We want to get that ball out as quick as possible. A lot of the game is played in transition. We work on that every day. It’s just become part of the culture.”

Princeton led 48-0 before Putnam County’s Kaylynn Hill made a free throw with 45.3 seconds left in the first half.

The Tigresses pushed their lead to 70-3 by the end of the third quarter. Piper Terando made PC’s lone field goal with 2:44 left in the third.

“I watched Princeton (on Monday) and I knew it was going to be tough,” PC coach Rebecca Pyszka said. “We’re young. There’s good parts that we have, we just have to put those together. Obviously, three points in a varsity game is unacceptable. I hope we can improve moving forward. It’s not even that we weren’t scoring, it’s that we couldn’t get open. We didn’t get many shots off.

“We’re going to work on setting screens, work on cutting, pushing into our defender to get open, sealing the defender, just stuff like that.”

Camryn Driscoll drained five 3s and scored 23 points for Princeton, while Payton Brandt had 14 points and Gibson added 12.

The Tigresses have won their first two games by a combined score of 130-17, but they expect a tougher game Thursday against Midland (1-0).

“It’s going to be a battle,” Gonigam said. “They beat us last year. It was a hard fought game. I remember those things and I think the girls do to. It’s nice to have an opportunity to play against a quality team like Midland.

“I think it will be a pretty fast paced game. It’s going to be a battle of who can take care of the ball better. Both teams are big, athletic, strong and give you a lot of pressure. Something we’ll have to do really well is handle pressure, find the open person and share the ball.”

IVC 52, Mendota 6: The Trojans were outscored 17-0 in the first quarter and trailed 29-3 at halftime.

Laylie Denault hit a 3-pointer for Mendota, while Kiah Davidson scored the Trojans’ only other field goal. Karissa Freeman added a free throw.