Girls Basketball: Lincoln-Way East topples Lockport

Lincoln-Way East senior Taylor Johnson was, quite honestly, surprised.

Then again, why shouldn’t she be? The first time she and her teammates met Lockport, on Jan. 23, they ran off to an early 25-point lead and cruised.

Tuesday night it was a much different story.

Visiting Lockport stayed with the No. 11 Griffins into the fourth quarter before the hosts used a late burst to post a 52-35 victory.

Johnson finished with 23 points, Caitlin McMahon 12 points and 12 rebounds, and Amy Jacobsen for Lincoln-Way East (23-3, 11-2), which is battling No. 10 Homewood-Flossmoor for second place behind Bolingbrook in the SouthWest Suburban Blue.

“I mean, everybody wants first place,” Jacobsen said. “But we’re really excited about second, and we’re really excited about how we’re going to do in the (state) playoffs.”

Lockport (5-20, 1-12) was led by Taylor Quain (13 points) and Brittany Baker (7).

Johnson dominated early for East, scoring all 11 of its points in the first period. It was 11-3 at one point, but Lockport closed well with back-to-back baskets by Allison Howard.

Johnson then cooled off, and the Griffins began fouling. Lockport went to the line five times in the second period. Down 23-15 the Porters again closed strong with a 5-0 run, hitting 5-of-8 free throws.

The Porters, who lost by 34 in the previous meeting, tied the score at 23 with 6:43 remaining in the third quarter on a jumper by Valerie Renkor.

“We weren’t expecting it,” Johnson said. “They’re a good team. We were real sloppy out there. We needed to get back on defense because they were pushing the ball a lot and we were fouling them. We needed to pick it up.”

It finally was Jacobsen who stung Lockport with a three-pointer and a 10-foot jumper near the end of the period. Later, Jacobsen started a 14-2 run with a three that finally put the Porters away.

“I’m very proud of our effort,” Lockport coach Krista Peterson said. “It’s just that fourth quarter we lost our composure on offense with turnovers. That hurt us, but overall I thought it was a great performance.”

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.