MERRILLVILLE | Through the second quarter, the Merrillville defense showed why the girls basketball team is ranked third in the state.

While holding Michigan City scoreless for more than five minutes, the Pirates offense exploded for a 14-0 run to end the first half, then clutched that lead in the second half for a 74-57 win Friday.

The victory guarantees Times No. 1 Merrillville (19-0, 13-0) the outright win in the Duneland Athletic Conference. They'll need a victory against Crown Point next week to finish the regular season unbeaten.

"As we started progressing through the beginning of the season, we learned we all had to make sure everyone was up in every game," said senior Jasmyne Miller, who scored seven points for the Pirates.

After taking the 33-14 halftime lead, Merrillville became "lazy" in the second half, coach Amy Govert said.

As Michigan City used a 24-point third quarter and offensive explosions from Tica Murphy and Jameka Collins to pull within eight points with 3:06 remaining in the game.

Freshman Victoria Gaines then executed a three-point play and the No. 5 Wolves scored just one basket the rest of the way. 

"In the timeout we said that we had to execute and said that she needed to get an and-one and she did," Govert said. "We were just a little off tonight, but it got the job done.

"It wasn't our best performance by any means. Our emotions were high on senior night. We had to compose ourselves in the first quarter, the second quarter we played extremely well and in the second half we got lazy."

Michigan City (14-5, 9-3) didn't have an answer inside for Gaines with forward Keyshyana Cooper out for the remainder of the season. Her return for the postseason is uncertain.

"Coach's decision. She'll miss the rest of the regular season and I don't know yet about the postseason," Wolves coach Mike Megyese said. "My team that was in there tonight was my team and they gave a great effort tonight."

Murphy led all scorers with 23 points, 19 of those scored in the second half. Collins chipped in 18 points with a team-high eight rebounds and three assists.

Gaines had 19 for the Pirates, including 13 in the second half. She scored all six of her first-half points as part of Merrillville's 14-0 run.

Raveen Murray was one of two seniors in double figures, scoring 18 points, joined by 11 from Dariyan Morris. Sophomore AJ Downs chipped in 14, including 10 in the first half.