Lockport runs out of gas at Pontiac
PONTIAC -- The wear-and-tear was apparent on the faces of the Lockport High School basketball players late Tuesday night.
The Porters felt the effects of dropping a 32-29 quarterfinal decision on a last-second shot to powerful Warren earlier in the day.
Lockport simply couldn't keep up with Chicago Simeon and fell 44-26 to the Wolverines in the annual Pontiac Holiday Tournament, thus eliminating the Porters with a 1-2 record.
The Porters (6-2) scored the game's first basket on a 3-pointer by Dmonte Hopkins 32 seconds into action but then turned ice cold. They did not score their next basket until 5:28 remaining in the first half on a putback by Scott Stevens.
"The game against Warren was an emotional one for us," Lockport coach Lawrence Thompson Jr. said. "But Simeon (which lost to Chicago Curie earlier Tuesday) had to pace themselves as well.
"I liked the way we battled back in this game. We made some good adjustments. Hopefully we can take some good things away from this and use it down the road."
Simeon led 15-9 at halftime over the Porters, who shot 35.7 percent (10-of-28). The Wolverines shot 41.5 percent (17-of-41).
The Porters did make an early second-half run. A basket by Hopkins, who scored a team-high 12 points, off a feed from Stevens gave Lockport a 19-17 lead with 2:09 left in the third quarter. But Simeon scored the next 6 points to go ahead for good at 23-19.
Lockport's Jake Boyce made a basket at the third-quarter buzzer to slice the margin to 23-21.
That was the closest Lockport would get. The Porters managed only 5 points in the fourth quarter.
The Porters, who committed 17 turnovers, made 5 of those miscues in the fourth quarter while hitting 2-of-6 shots.
"We knew that Simeon would pressure us with some tight defense," Thompson said. "We failed to handle and take care of the basketball very well.
"I thought we made some ill-advised decisions with the ball. When Simeon switched to a man-to-man in the fourth quarter, we didn't have very good matchups for that."
Following Hopkins' offensive effort was point guard Ryan Callozzo with 6 points. He made a pair of 3-pointers.
Lockport returns to action Jan. 9 when it hosts Sandburg in Southwest Suburban Blue play.
