You kept waiting … and waiting … and waiting.

The Chesterton girls basketball team hung around, but never made the run they needed, and fell in the IHSAA Sectional opener at Portage Tuesday night to LaPorte 47-31.

“We didn’t get a couple of stops when we needed to,” Chesterton coach Jack Campbell said. “We’d score a couple of possessions in a row, but so would they. It just stayed there around 8-10 points.”

The Trojans led early on 6-4, but a 6-2 run by the Slicers put them up 10-8 at the end of the first quarter and they never trailed again.

“That’s a really good team,” Campbell said. “It’s tough to defend a team with a good point guard, 3-point shooters and a couple of big kids inside.”

Caroline Puntillo was the offensive force for the Trojans with 20 points on 6-of-13 shooting from the floor and 8-of-10 at the foul line. The junior also grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.

“Caroline really came in pumped up tonight and played well,” Campbell said. “Caroline was basically the only one that scored for us tonight. Sarah (Richards) made a couple of baskets, but it’s hard to beat anybody when only two players score.”

The Trojans pulled within 33-25 after a Richards triple, but LaPorte’s 6-foot center Kelsey Gushrowski took over. Gushrowski scored nine of her team-high 20 in the fourth quarter.

“They went high-low and their kids are just so much bigger than we are,” Campbell said. “You’re on an island in there because you can’t leave those shooters.”

Chesterton didn’t make a field goal the final 7:08 of play and hit on just 8-of-26 (31 percent) from the field.

“We played a lot of the season without some of our main kids because of injuries and concussions,” Campbell said. “You’re against a lot of odds that way, but our kids came out and played their fannies off. These kids are great kids and I wouldn’t take anybody’s kids over ours.”

AT PORTAGE

Chesterton (8-7-7-9)

Sarah Richards 2-6 3-4 8, Kelsey Conway 0-0 1-2 1, Kassidy Scott 0-4 2-2 2, Hannah McCafferty 0-1 0-0 0, Caroline Puntillo 6-13 8-10 20, McKenzie Sullivan 0-0 0-0 0, Kayla Malackowski 0-1 0-0 0, Mary Mochen 0-1 0-0 0, Jordan Wadding 0-0 0-0 0, Lia Lombardini 0-0 0-0 0, Natalie Petro 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 8-26 14-18 31.

LaPorte (10-12-9-16)

Madeline Voelker 0-5 0-0 0, Jaclyn Heath 1-3 5-6 7, Taylor Thompson 3-6 0-0 6, Delanie Alcorn 4-8 0-0 12, Kelsey Gushrowski 9-13 1-1 20, Yojaira Campos 0-0 0-0 0, Rachel Hill 0-0 0-0 0, Abigail Vaughn 0-0 0-0 0, Savannah Vaughn 0-0 0-0 0, Jocelyn Colburn 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 18-38 6-7 47.

3-point field goals: Chesterton 1-5 (Richards 1-3, Puntillo 0-2); LaPorte 5-16 (Voelker 0-4, Heath 0-2, Thompson 0-2, Alcorn 4-7, Gushrowski 1-1). Rebounds: Chesterton 18 (Puntillo 7); LaPorte 22 (Gushrowski 7). Assists: Chesterton 3 (Conway 2); LaPorte 10 (Heath 4, Thompson 4). Steals: Chesterton 3 (Puntillo 2); LaPorte 2 (Voelker 2).

Posted 2/6/2013