MERRILLVILLE | While Lowell's top two players were out of Tuesday's girls basketball game, every Merrillville player that touched the floor in the first three quarters scored.
The Red Devils lost double-digit scorer Mackenzie Kreutz in the first minute to an ankle injury, then leading scorer Katie Bobos fouled out in the third quarter.
So Merrillville spread around the wealth and easily won the nonconference match 63-33.
Kreutz will be out at least a couple weeks, Lowell coach Matt Welsh said, with an ankle sprain.
“I feel bad for Mack, really, because she was set to be aggressive and go after this one,” Welsh said. “(Not having Kreutz and Bobos) didn’t help us, but it didn’t lose us the basketball game.”
Bobos, who Welsh said has committed to the University of West Florida, led her team with six points and six rebounds, playing just two and a half quarters.
After Times No. 1 Merrillville took a 10-0 lead to open the game, No. 3 Lowell pulled within four points with a defense that forced Merrillville turnovers and gave the Red Devils open looks at the basket.
Bobos found herself in foul trouble early, called for her third with 15 seconds left in the first quarter and her fourth with 2:49 left in the second quarter.
“We had a great start, and obviously their center going down hurt them a little bit, but we knew we were going to attack Bobos, that was our goal to get her in foul trouble,” Merrillville coach Amy Govert said. “I think we did a pretty good job of that.”
Dariyan Morris' 17 points led the Pirates as the senior was one of three Merrillville players in double figures. Victoria Gaines added 14 points and Jaz Talley had 12 points as 10 of 12 Pirates’ players scored.
Sydney Barta added six points to help lead Lowell, which scored just 33 points in its only other loss this season, in a tournament at Warsaw.
The Pirates extended the team's regular-season winning streak to 35 games, dating back to the end of the 2010-11 season. Merrillville also kept alive a winning streak against Lowell that dates back to Feb. 1, 2005.
“We can’t let up, it’s just the little things, especially rebounding,” Govert said. “We told them, don’t look at the scoreboard, we have to play our game. We had some unforced turnovers, it was just a couple of little things.”
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