Lindsi McGuffey hits five 3-pointers and Novea Brandon makes four as Trojans turn up the defense to win at Merrillville, 50-38

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

In going on the road and defeating Merrillville, 50-38, Friday night, Chesterton’s girls basketball team showed it can score points in bunches with hot 3-point shooters, tallying eight long ones in the first half and 10 for the game.
The Trojans then showed in the third quarter that they also can pile up points using their speed for fastbreak buckets, building a lead that grew as large as 21 points after the first bucket of the fourth quarter.
And then they reminded themselves that it’s impossible to score if you turn the ball over before getting up a shot.
Merrillville went on a 10-point run early in the fourth period and eight of those points came on Chesterton turnovers.
Overall though, it was another good night for the Trojans, who improved to 12-5 overall and 4-1 in the DAC.
“We were trying to play a little too fast there,” Trojans coach Candy Wilson said. “We had a nice little lead going there and we were getting the dust off a little there from the last couple of weeks.”
Wilson was pleased with how well the Trojans moved the ball in the first half to get so many open 3-pointers.
In taking a 15-13 first-quarter lead, the Trojans scored all their points from beyond the arc, junior Novea Brandon hitting three and Lindsi McGuffey two. McGuffey stayed hot and scored15 of her 16 points in the first half, all on 3-pointers, two late in the half to spread the lead to 32-24 heading into the locker room.
“They were doing a great job of trying to make the extra pass, very unselfish basketball tonight,” Wilson said. “Lots of kids scoring, and that’s where you want to be this time of year.”
Brandon added a fourth 3-pointer in the third quarter and Ella Boyanski chipped in with one as well.
McGuffey didn’t let her hot shooting in the first half change the way she played the game.
“I just kind of let the game come to me and not try to think about it so much,” she said of not hunting points in the second half. “I do better when I do that.”
Brandon scored 12 points, Reese Dilbeck nine, Allison Van Kley four and reserves Addison Pack and Taylor Kisic two apiece.
Even as well as the Trojans shot, it was their work at the other end of the floor that impressed their coach the most.
“We’ve been working on some new stuff on defense and they did a really nice job,” Wilson said. “I’ve been challenging Novea to play better defense and she really stepped it up tonight. And then she got her swagger when she did that. Lindsi was better on defense too. They all moved their feet well.”
McGuffey said it has been a daily point of emphasis.
“We’ve been working really hard on our man to man, trying to be more aggressive at practice, trying to challenge each other when we’re playing defense against each other,” McGuffey said. “I thought our defense was pretty good tonight.”
The Trojans defense will try to stop West Lafayette in the finale of a Salute to Service tripleheader at Chesterton. The freshman game starts at 3 p.m., the JV at 4:15, the varsity at 5:30. Veterans, active duty military personnel and first responders are invited to attend to be honored.
“The color guard is coming and we’re going to do a little spiel with the veterans,” Wilson said. “It’ll be a good time.”