Penn runs away from Chesterton at the end with a 68-53 road victory and Chesterton looks forward to road game vs. another top 20 team, Portage on Friday

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Even for a schedule as challenging as the one Chesterton’s boys basketball team plays, the Trojans find themselves in the middle of a particularly tough back-to-back challenge.
The first half of it didn’t go Chesterton’s way Saturday and a hot-shooting Penn team scored a 68-53 road victory in a game in which the Trojans pulled within two points early in the fourth quarter before the Kingsmen pulled away at the end.
The win enabled Penn (14-3) to move from No. 13 to No. 12 in the state 4A rankings. Chesterton (14-4) dropped from No. 15 to No. 18.
Chesterton faces another top 20 team in its next game, Friday at No. 19 Portage (16-2). The court will be named after former Portage girls basketball coach Renee Turpa in a dedication ceremony at halftime.
“So, it’ll be a packed environment,” Chesterton coach Marc Urban said. “It’ll be a fun one to take our team on the road. We have a lot of work to do so we’re prepared to go down there and find a way to get a victory.”
Penn, armed with horizontal and vertical size, made it difficult on Chesterton at both ends of the floor on a day their shooting touches made the trip from Mishawaka. Four different players combined for nine 3-pointers.
Sidelined temporarily in the second half after twisting his ankle, sophomore point guard Caleb Coolman hit three of them and scored a game-high 24 points. He is the son of second-year Penn coach Barak Coolman, who spent the previous nine seasons coaching on the other half of the Valparaiso-Chesterton rivalry.
He didn’t have his son playing in any of those games.
“The 3s they hit were very timely,” Urban said. “When we didn’t do our job and Coolman was able to get loose he made us pay. Then the other guys, when they were able to shake loose, they made us pay. We had to do a better job of squaring him off early. He’s tall, he’s 6-5, if you let him get deep, you get in trouble.”
Penn took leads of 14-10 at the end of the first quarter and 30-21 at the half, by which time the Kinsgmen had made five 3-pointers, three in the second half by Lucas Obermeyer, a 6-5 forward.
Penn went up 29-21.
The margin could have been wider but for the Trojans executing well at the end of both quarters. Cooper Huwig cut hard to the hoop and Bradly Basila hit him with a pass he converted at the end of the first quarter. Tobias Ray drove and converted for the final bucket of the half.
Ray opened the second half nailing a 3-pointer and Malachi Ransom closed the quarter with a successful drive that pulled the Trojans within 48-44.
Ransom opened the final quarter by getting two steals on the first two possessions and turned the second one into points that cut Penn’s lead to 48-46.
Chesterton never came that close again and Penn made 8 of 10 foul shots in the final period.
Ransom led Chesterton with 11 points and Basila, Logan Pokorney, Ray and Jaylon Watts scored nine points apiece.
Urban said that Penn’s matchup zone was designed to try to force players to go left and the Trojans struggled with it early in the game before erupting for 23 third-quarter points, seven from Pokorney, who was held scoreless in the first half.
“I was proud of our guys fighting back, cutting into the lead,” Urban said. “I’m excited to continue to fight with these guys, fight with Logan, fight with Jaylon, fight with Caden (Schneider), fight with those seniors and the guys we have around them.”
Chesterton's next battle is for second-place in the DAC. The Trojans and Portage are tied with 4-1 conference records.