Boys Basketball: Michigan City wins ‘ugly’ again

Updated: December 17, 2011 12:22AM

MICHIGAN CITY — John Boyd figured it might take him an extra six hours or so to get to sleep after Friday night’s narrow victory over Crown Point.

Young teams will do that to a veteran coach.

Boyd breathed a sigh of relief after Michigan City shook off a determined Crown Point team for a 66-60 Duneland Conference win at the Wolves Den.

And, again, the Wolves showed some toughness, struggled at the free-throw line, but somehow came out on top.

“Right now it’s the good, bad and ugly,” Boyd said. “We’re a Clint Eastwood team. The good is that the guys attacked inside. The bad is that we’re not making free throws. And the ugly is we’re winning ugly.

“It was cardiac arrest out there. Another nail-biter.”

But Boyd will take it, especially after he watched his team shoot 15-of-31 from the foul line and blow and eight-point, third-quarter lead when the Bulldogs’ Bret Barclay scored to put Crown Point up 45-44 with 5:43 to play in the fourth quarter.

Taylor Lavery, though, responded for Michigan City by draining a 3-pointer the next time down the court. The Wolves (3-3, 3-1 DAC) never relinquished the lead again.

“That’s something we needed to do, be more aggressive with our shot selection,” Boyd said.

Crown Point (1-4, 1-3 DAC) got a huge effort from Barclay, a sophomore forward. He finished a game- and career-high 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting from the field. He was 5-of-9 from 3-point range. Barclay also had 10 rebounds.

“We knew he was capable of a game like that,” Bulldogs coach Clint Swan said. “He found a groove and a rhythm, and his teammates were finding him.”

Jabbar Washington came off the bench to lead Michigan City with 16 points.

Lavery added 11 and Keenan Simmons 10. Tom Bardeson added 15 points for Crown Point.

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