A defensive change and a 14-5 advantage at the free throw line were enough to give the Chesterton girls basketball team a 42-37 Duneland Athletic Conference victory over Portage on Friday night.

“It was another one of those Portage-Chesterton girls games,” Chesterton coach Jack Campbell said.

It didn’t look good early as the Indians jumped out to an 8-0 lead as they forced seven Trojan turnovers before CHS finally got on the board on a jumper by Riley Taubert at the 3:24 mark.

“We had four outstanding practices this week, but it didn’t show up offensively for us tonight,” Campbell said. “Nothing we did looked like anything we practiced.”

The Indians continued the onslaught early and built a 16-4 lead after one quarter. Ryan Bozak’s conventional 3-point play started the second quarter, but Portage scored four straight points for a 20-7 lead.

Claire Holba and Taubert scored back-to-back baskets to start a 9-0 run that pulled the Trojans within 20-16 with 2:14 to play in the half. Holba had game-high’s with 21 points and 11 rebounds, while Taubert had nine points and nine rebounds.

“Claire had another good ballgame for us,” Campbell said. “Riley played well and the two of them were effective in the paint tonight.”

When Holba grabbed an offensive rebound and scored with 2:21 to play in the third quarter, the Trojans had tied the score at 29-all. A triple by the Indians was followed by another Holba basket to cut the lead to 32-31 after three quarters.

But, it was the defense that had changed for Chesterton as they held Portage to just 14 second half points.

“We went to the triangle and two in the second half against their two guards and tried to take them away,” Campbell said. “It worked for the most part. Those two kids are the only ones that really shoot the basketball from the perimeter. We thought we needed to do something.

“To their credit they did a nice job against our zone in the first half, so we had to make a switch.”

Trailing 36-33 with 2:33 to play, the Trojans outscored Portage 9-1 to end the game as Chesterton went 7-of-10 from the foul line down the stretch to set the final score.

Chesterton (4-13-14-11)

Ryan Bozak 1-4 2-3 4, Alyssa White 1-7 1-5 3, Lindsay Gorman 2-6 1-3 5, Claire Holba 8-9 5-5 21, Riley Taubert 2-6 5-6 9, Maddie Houpt 0-0 0-0 0, Reva Key 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 14-33 14-24 42.

Portage (16-7-9-5)

Brianne Wischman 4-10 2-4 11, Jabria Ezell 0-3 0-0 0, Jawanza Woods 2-4 0-2 4, Nicki Monahan 2-5 0-0 5, Tori Bliss 6-18 2-2 14, Hannah Glos 0-0 0-0 0, Brittanie Warren 0-0 0-0 0, Carly Bermes 0-7 0-0 0, Alyssa Tampier 1-2 1-2 3. Totals 15-48 5-10 37.

3-point field goals: Chesterton 0-5 (White 0-2, Gorman 0-3); Portage 2-14 (Wischman 1-5, Woods 0-1, Monahan 1-4, Bliss 0-1, Bermes 0-3). Rebounds: Chesterton 33 (Holba 11, Taubert 9); Portage 26 (Woods 6). Steals: Chesterton 9 (Gorman 3); Portage 10 (Woods 3). Assists: Chesterton 7 (Gorman 3); Portage 5 (Wischman 3).

The Chesterton junior varsity held Portage to just one basket in the fourth quarter and picked up a 26-21 victory on Saturday afternoon.

Anna Raffin led the Trojans with seven points, while Kathleen Sheeran scored six points in the win. Megan Matheny and Taylor Bissonnette scored five points each.

Mary Mochen added three points to round out the scoring.

Posted 1/25/2010