The La Porte boy’s basketball team travelled to Merrillville Friday night winning 84-75 in a fast paced, highly entertaining DAC conference game.

 

The Slicers, who have suffered through horrible starts on trips to Lake County this season, came out red hot in this one. LP hit 6 three pointers in the opening quarter running to 23-22 first quarter lead. The Slicers led 23-18 late in the period but a missed block out on a free throw, a turnover, and a buzzer beating reverse layup allowed the Pirates to cut the lead to one.

The first few minutes of the second quarter were back and forth before the Slicers got hot and outscored Merrillville 15-4 to take a 43-31 edge into halftime. La Porte hit 2 second quarter threes and got a layup each from Tommy Samuelson and Brennan Balka on gorgeous pick and rolls. 

 

Rylan Kieszkowski had 13 points at the half, Kyle Kirkham 8 and Samuelson 7. Merrillville’s Darrin Weaver had 12 points at the break. 

 

La Porte stretched its lead to 62-46 after three quarters with six different Slicers scoring in the period. A highlight of the third quarter was a Kieszkowski breakaway dunk. 

LP got their lead to as many as 20 points in the fourth quarter. Hitting four more three pointers.  Merrillville used an aggressive, trapping press to cut the lead to 7 points in the final minute but that was as close as they would get. 

 

The Slicers put five players in double figures. Kieszkowski, who was named the Salisbury and Spence Edward Jones player of the game, had 23 points. The steady Kirkham finished with 16, Samuelson 14, RJ Anglin and Malik Corley had 11 each. Samuelson, who may have played his best game of the year, was great on the boards and on defense. The versatile Anglin, who hit 3 threes gave the Slicers a solid floor game.

 

This is LP’s second win in a row over the Pirates. The Slicers won 67-66 at Slicer gym last year. It is La Porte’s first win at Merrillville since 2011. 

 

La Porte’s record improves to 14-6 on the year they are 3-3 in the DAC and are on a four game winning streak. The Slicers will be back in action Tuesday for a Valentine’s Day battle with Goshen. Varsity tip will be at 6:00. The JV game will start at 4:30. It is Senior Night.  As always the varsity game will be broadcast on 96.7 the Eagle pregame around 5:45.

 

SLICER JV’S SUFFER TOUGH LOSS 62-59

 

Matt Miller’s Slicer JV team just couldn’t get over the hump in Friday night’s 62-59 loss to Merrillville. La Porte trailed at each quarter stop 18-14, 28-25 and 53-47.  

 

La Porte had an opportunity in the closing seconds of the game. With the Pirates leading 60-57 with 6.9 seconds remaining, Sawyer Tonagel got a clean three pointer off. The ball just rimmed out with Merrillville grabbing the rebound. The Slicer quickly fouled and M’ville’s Arjae Johnsonh it two free throws to make it 62-57. As the Slicers hurried the ball up court the Pirates inexplicably fouled Javelle Broome with four tenths of a second remaining. Broome hit both free throw to make it 62-59.  The Pirates threw the inbounds pass away with no on touching it and La Porte got the ball underneath their own goal. The Slicers ran Tonagel off of several picks and got him the ball on the left wing but with no time to set his feet the potential game tying shot fell short.

 

La Porte put four players in double figures led by Tonagel’s 19. Kevin Konieczny and Broome each had 11 and Eli Taylor finished with 10.

 

Images courtesy of Susan Anglin.