Indians ruin Times No. 1 Merrillville's unbeaten record

ST. JOHN | Lake Central center Andrea Kras was holding the ball when the buzzer sounded to end Merrillville's unbeaten season.

Forward Brooke Polus was searching for Kaley Marcinak on the court, looking up at the clock that read 0:00 and the scoreboard that read "Home: 66, Guests: 48".

"Every shot we took was falling," Polus said. "We knew Merrillville was undefeated and we really wanted to stop that."

Behind a 47 percent shooting night and eight 3-pointers -- including five from behind the arc in the second quarter -- the Indians gave Merrillville its first regular-season blemish.

Times No. 1 Merrillville never took the lead on the No. 6 Indians' senior night.

"In the four years I've been on the varsity coaching staff, we've never won a senior night," coach Leslie Iwema said. "This is very, very big for this team and all of those seniors showed a lot of leadership."

The Indians picked up 47 points from their seniors, with 18 from Polus, 13 from Kras, five from Ashley Doreski, nine from Kaley Marcinak and two from Britney Tuskan.

Lake Central also outrebounded the Pirates (16-1, 10-1 Duneland Conference) 34-26 in the game and 19-13 in the first half. Kras led Lake Central (11-6, 8-3) with eight rebounds.

Merrillville's woes opened from the outset and continued as the Pirates didn't hit a field goal in the second quarter until the 2:54 mark as L.C.'s lead grew to 34-17.

"We took so much energy after the Hobart game (Tuesday)," Merrillville coach Amy Govert said. "We did everything we could to prepare, but we were a little slow coming out tonight. Give Lake Central all the credit. They shot unbelievably well tonight."

Though L.C. held a 12-point lead at the half, the Indians were warned of a Merrillville comeback. In the first game of the DAC round robin, Lake Central had the halftime lead, and a two-point edge after three quarters before falling 61-48.

"The first time we played them, they brought it to us," Polus said. "We had one of those games where everyone was open, and we let them fly and they were just going in. Everyone around knew where each other were, and we were trying to feed off of that."

GIRLS BASKETBALL

No. 6 Lake Central 66, No. 1 Merrillville 48

Brooke Polus had 18 points for the Indians.

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