MISHAWAKA — Led by 6-foot-7 University of Notre Dame recruit Austin Torres, Penn owned the paint Tuesday in a 59-45 win over Niles.

Torres scored 25 points, grabbed eight rebounds, totaled four blocked shots and ignited the crowd with his six dunks.

“Austin Torres has had a nice career here,” said Niles coach Todd Pawielski, whose team fell to 5-13. “We weren’t going to stop him tonight. We tried to limit his points and obviously we didn’t. He had a few in spectacular fashion.”

The Vikings lost most of their size when 6-foot-4 Mitchell Dehn fouled out with 6:15 left in the third quarter.

Penn finished with a 27-19 rebounding advantage.

“Penn dominated us on the boards,” Pawielski said. “Penn really dominated us in a lot of facets of the game.”

Niles only led twice in the game with its final lead coming at 11-9 after getting a 3-pointer from Alex Brown with 3:35 left in the first quarter.

Penn then finished the quarter on a 12-4 run to take a 21-15 lead. Two dunks by Torres highlighted the run for the Kingsmen.

Penn made its final six shots in the quarter and owned an 11-3 rebounding advantage after one quarter.

“We were fortunate that (Penn) missed some shots in the lane early,” Pawielski said.

Penn took a 32-25 lead into halftime after getting basket in the paint from Torres with 2:21 left in the second quarter. The Kingsmen held the ball for the final 1:30 and ended up with a wild shot and no points.

Another dunk from Torres gave Penn a 36-27 lead with 5:19 left in the third quarter and started a 10-3 run by the hosts. A Torres dunk capped the run and gave the Kingsmen a 44-30 lead with 1:22 left in the third quarter. Penn led by as many as 21 points in the fourth quarter.

“Penn is really good,” Pawielski said. “They do a lot of things the right way and they’re extremely well coached. They’re very physical and they did a lot of things that they needed to do to be successful.”

Brown scored 12 points and grabbed four rebounds for Niles. Stokes added 10 points. Jordan Geist and Christian Wittendorf each scored 10 points for Penn, which improved to 15-4. Last week, the Kingsmen finished as the Northern Indiana Conference co-champions with South Bend Adams.

It was the fifth game in eight days for Niles.

“I’m very pleased with the way we played,” Pawielski said. “We were probably never going to win this game, but when the fouls were 6 to 0 (in favor of Penn) two minutes into the third it was very evident that we weren’t going to be close in this game. Our guys really fought through some bizarro homer whistles.”

Niles finished the game with 17 fouls, while Penn had six.

The Kingsmen also had a big edge when it came to taking care of the basketball as Penn had only eight turnovers, while Niles totaled 16.

“We just needed to make a few shots and turn the ball over little less along the way,” Pawielski said.

 

NILES 45

Tate Brawley 7, Gabriel Stokes 10, Mitchell Dehn 2, Gevanta Nichols 4, Alex Brown 12, Jeremy Wortham 4, Connor Glick 4, Anthony Bice 0, Jesse Jordan 0, Matt Miller 2, Cole Clemens 0. TOTALS: 15 10-10 45

PENN 59

Austin Torres 25, Conner Sowders 3, Mikey Szrom 4, Cory Kreiger 0, Jordan Geist 10, Christian Wittendorf 10, Ryan Lutz 5, Nathan Miller 0, William Doslak 2, Andrew Kimm 0, Isaiah Cook 0, Matthew Chaffee 0. TOTALS: 22 13-17 59

 

Niles 15 25 32 45

Penn 21 32 46 59

3-point goals: Niles 5 (Stokes 2, Brown 2, Brawley), Penn 2 (Sowders, Lutz). Total fouls (fouled out): Niles 17 (Dehn), Penn 6 (none). Shooting: Niles 15-of-32 for 47-percent, Penn 22-of-53 for 41-percent. Rebounding: Penn 27 (Torres 8), Niles 19 (Brown 4). Turnovers: Niles 16, Penn 8