Gage Ott is sandwiched between two Chesterton players in a fight for a loose ball.
Story and photos by Mike Kellems
(Click on photos to enlarge)
Two exciting Duneland Conference games in the sectional prelims Friday, March 7, 2014, set up a Saturday night match for the ages between two cross county rivals: the LaPorte Slicers and the Michigan City Wolves.
In the first sectional semifinal game Friday evening, the Wolves bested the Portage Indians 64-49. In the second game, LaPorte started and maintained a lead over the Chesterton Trojans and ended the night with a 71-58 victory.
Michigan City and LaPorte are pretty evenly matched and have similar records: the Wolves are 14 and 8; the Slicers are 15 and 7. Michigan City has a D1 recruit in Kennan Simmons, who has been a solid player for the team all year long. LaPorte may have the edge with two team leaders: Gage Ott and Josh Fleming. Ott is great in the post and Fleming is a fantastic ball handler. The Slicers defeated City twice this year; once in the Holiday Tournament and again in the regular-season match up. The last time the two teams faced off in a sectional championship was in 2000.
The LaPorte basketball program has hit a spark this year. The freshman team went undefeated, the junior varsity team earned a conference championship and the varsity team is shooting for a sectional championship. As a program this year, the Slicers have 65 wins and 14 losses.
The sectional championship game starts at 7 p.m. Saturday at Valparaiso High School. The Slicer students are calling for a “white out” at the game. Two things are certain: A LaPorte County team will hoist the sectional trophy and cut down the net Saturday, and this game is going to be a good, old-fashioned, Hoosier-style barn burner! Don’t miss it!
A battle for the rebound.
Slicer fans saw a lot of this in the first quarter.
Josh Jones fires off a 3-pointer.
The happy final