Logan Pokorney leads Chesterton’s Valentine’s Day massacre, 86-37, of visiting Hammond Central, hitting six 3-pointers and scoring 24 points

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

One night after a scrappy, big win in a second-place showdown Friday at Portage the Chesterton basketball team faced a test of another sort, this one against itself.
Could the Trojans look past the record of their Saturday opponent, Hammond Central (4-15), and bring the same intensity it carried into Portage?
The affirmative answer came quickly in a game Chesterton would win 86-39, the final quarter and change played with a running clock because of a mercy rule that’s triggered when a team is up 35 points in the second half.
By the time Hammond Central finally scored, senior Logan Pokorney had hit a trio of three-pointers and the Trojans led 15-0. That doesn’t happen if a team is going through the motions.
It was a night to work on some things, such as the half-court trap applied, a night to have fun with a barrage of dunks, but not a night to get into the bad habit of letting the energy lapse.
“You’ve got to approach every game the same way,” Pokorney said. “I think we pushed this game the same as we did last night and every other night of the season.”
After a 15-point night against Portage in which he led the Trojans in ways that had nothing to do with scoring and hit two 3-pointers, Pokorney showcased his greatest skill, long-range shooting, and again played with a fire in his eyes. He made six 3-pointers on the way to 24 points. He lifted his 3-point shooting to .440, his scoring average to 14.2.
Chesterton 10th-year Marc Urban was pleased with how the Trojans played in both weekend games.
“I thought last night we played very, very together, very connected, very unselfish, and I thought we played hard,” Urban said. “We still made mistakes, but I thought the guys played with a lot of energy.”
He noticed more of the same vs. Hammond Central.
“I thought we played together,” Urban said. “Sometimes in lopsided games you can kind of go off and try to do your own thing, but I thought we stayed us (puts hands together) through the whole time, and that’s important.”
Before the back-to-back games, Pokorney went through a mini-stretch during which his scoring dropped and at times he dropped his typical poker face and let his frustration show.
Coming out of that stretch, he has looked to drive to the hoop more often, is rebounding more aggressively and communicating more.
“I’ve had a lot of people text me about how they could see a different demeanor and impact and him having fun, playing hard, making plays and that’s just a senior figuring out at the right time here just how much of an impact he can make outside of just scoring,” Urban said. “That’s just part of learning. You’re not born a leader and you could say you want to be it, but you just have to keep going through the stuff and we’ve had some uncomfortable moments this year and that’s when you grow. And I think he’s continued to grow, so I’ve been proud of him, but I still have a lot of coaching to do as well, which is fun.”
Speaking of fun, sophomore Tommy Kostbade, Chesterton’s second big man off the bench after junior Gunner Ello, had plenty of it Saturday. He hit a 3-pointer and converted the second lob sent his way by classmate Cooper Huwig for the first dunk of his varsity career.
Fellow sophomore Bradly Basila had multiple dunks for the second night in a row, scored 15 points, hit one of the team’s 12 3-pointers, blocked a shot early and played much better defense than he did the previous night.
Tobias Ray returned after missing the Portage game with the stomach flu and was back to throwing up swishes from way downtown on his way to 10 points.
The team’s intensity didn’t fade. The Trojans scored 43 points in each half and had at least 20 points every quarter, even with a running clock in the final one.
Chesterton (16-4) next plays at Lowell (5-15) and is at home Tuesday night vs. Valparaiso (12-10). The Trojans wrap up the regular season at Culver Academies (9-9) on Feb. 27.