Soft shooting at the beginning and gritty play at the end lift Chesterton to 73-62 win over visiting LaPorte

Tom Keegan
Onwardtrojans.com

Visiting LaPorte showed so much talent and heart in mounting multiple comebacks before ultimately losing to Chesterton, 73-62, that it was easy to forget what a phenomenal long-range shooting exhibition the Trojans put on at the start of the game.
Tobias Ray from the top of the key for 3. Jaylon Watts from the left corner. Swish, 6-0. Logan Pokorney from the left corner, 9-0. Bradley Basila from the inside, followed by a fastbreak bucket and another Pokorney 3, this time from the right corner, and the Trojans were up 16-0 with three-and-a-half minutes left in the first quarter.
It was a nice birthday present for Chesterton coach Marc Urban, his players seemingly on the way to blowing out the opponent in lieu of him blowing out candles on a cake.
But the Slicers didn’t let it happen.
They had multiple Lazarus acts in them, closing the third quarter with a 15-2 run to pull within 10 points. The Slicers also scored 10 consecutive points in the fourth quarter to draw within nine points, but couldn’t get any closer.
The Trojans made four three-points in a first quarter that ended with them leading 20-9 and seven in a first half that ended with them on top 40-21.
In the end, the beginning was the difference.
“We had a good start, playing with a lot of intensity and I thought we had an edge to us and obviously made some shots, and you’re probably not going to continue to play that way the entire game,” Urban said. “We took a little dip, but then I thought we got back to that.”
Both coaches had reason to like a lot of what they saw from their teams.
“I was really proud of our guys,” LaPorte coach Jordan Heckard said. “They didn’t quit. They battled until the end. We got down 16-0 and it would be easy to hang your head, and then we were down 49-26 and guys kept fighting, so that was good to see. You play against a good team, you can’t bury yourself down 16. Credit to Chesterton. They were ready for us and took us out of a lot of things that we do, and that’s what Coach Urban does.”
Chesterton made just two 3-pointers in the second half, both by Bradly Basila, who led the team with 20 points, 10 coming in the second quarter. Watts played a big part in the Trojans maintaining their composure when the Slicers made their runs. He scored 19 points and made 7 of 8 free throws, all of the freebies coming in the second half. Malachi Ransom, who has become harder to guard this season because his right hand is so much stronger, made 5 of 6 foul shots, including 4 of 4 in the fourth quarter, and scored nine points off the bench. Aside from Watts and Ransom, the rest of the team struggled from the line, combining to make just 2 of 11.
Nobody shot better from anywhere on the court than LaPorte lefty Tim Knoll, who made 7 of 7 3-pointers and scored a game-high 26 points.
“Tonight the basket looked as big as the ocean to him,” Heckard said. “He’s capable of that. He’s put in a ton of time and he got on a heater tonight and our guys were finding him. He kept us afloat when we were pretty dead in the water.”
The second half was more of what Chesterton expected from LaPorte than how the game started.
“They’re a great team. They never give up. They were down 20 at half and they just kept fighting,” Watts said. “They didn’t make it easy on us. I mean, we kind of did it to ourselves too but they never stopped fighting. And they’re talented.”
So is Watts.
“Jaylon’s just so solid,” Urban said. “He does so many things well. … He’s a special kid and he’s making a lot of big-time plays for us.”
Watts also does a lot of little things that add up to big differences in games.
“He gets his hands on a lot of basketballs,” Urban said. “He might not always lead us in scoring, but he might have five rebounds. He might have five assists. He might have five steals, and he’s pretty consistent in his play.”
Watts also has the maturity to know that a team that isn’t forever striving to get better is getting worse.
“We’ve still got a ways to go, but I think if we continue to learn from these games and understand what it takes to win, I think we’ll be good,” he said.
The loss dropped the Slicers to 10-4 overall and 0-2 in the DAC. They lost their conference opener last week to Lake Central in overtime.
Chesterton improved to 11-2 overall and 2-0 in the DAC, sharing first place with Crown Point and Portage. The Trojans hit the road for their next three games: at Hobart on Jan. 20, at Crown Point Jan. 23, and at Lake Central Jan. 28.