Lockport wears down Minooka

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:34AM

Lockport took advantage of a worn-down Minooka team behind the second-half effort of Gintare Surdokaite to come away with a 46-38 victory.

The host Indians (18-4) were noticeably less energetic in the second half. Minooka was coming off a big conference victory the previous night against Romeoville and leading scorer Stephanie Furr was playing with the flu virus.

``We ran out of legs in the second half,'' Minooka coach Ray Liberatore said. ``Lockport's a very good team and tonight was a good test for us.

Stephanie will never make excuses but that is not the Stephanie Furr we've come to know out there tonight.''

Surdokaite scored 13 of her game-high 19 points in the second half including 10 points in the third quarter when the Porters (14-8) went ahead for good.

Nora Polaski took a nice feed from Taylor Quain to put the Porters ahead for good at 30-28 late in the third quarter. Surdokaite added a three pointer to end the quarter with Lockport leading 33-28.

``Definitely, their intensity went down in the second half,'' Surdokaite said. ``That caused our's to go up. We were just finding each other open with good passes in the second half.''

Furr was held to just seven points and sat for long stretches during the game. The senior guard was held well below her 21-point average by a very aggressive Lockport defense. The Porters used a full-court press throughout the game and forced 26 turnovers.

``Our defense was creating our offense and that is when we are at our best,'' Lockport coach Krista Peterson said. ``We had the intensity level and were pressuring their guards. They had a hard time getting the ball inside.''

Ashley Clemmons was providing a big inside presence for the Indians. The 6-1, junior tallied 15 points, 13 rebounds and four blocked shots. Lockport limited her touches in the fourth quarter by doubling on the guards on the perimeter. Clemmons led Minooka out to an 11-4 first quarter lead with six points and eight rebounds.

Quain led Lockport back into the game by scoring nine of her 11 points in the first half. The junior forward started the second quarter with a three pointer starting a 7-0 run. The stanza tied the game at 11 and started a see-saw battle until the fourth quarter.

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