MICHIGAN CITY -- Portage 64, Crown Point 40.
The one-sided loss to the Indians back on Feb. 6 hadn't been far from the Bulldogs' minds in the five weeks since.
"I think I watched that film like once a day," Dikembe Shaw said. "We lost to the team, we've got to pay them back later."
Shaw and CP got their chance in Saturday's Class 4A regional, and the 6-foot-7 junior didn't let it go to waste, scoring 17 of his game-high 27 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the 'Dogs outlasted Portage in a classic battle of the Duneland Conference's co-champions, 68-62.
"We knew it was going to come back to this team, and that kind of put something in me," Shaw said. "I know, watching film from first game, I let them wall me off. Just being more aggressive, I felt like I could finish on them. The stars got to show up. I had something special coming into this one."
Fouls limited Shaw in the first meeting, and he sat a chunk of the third quarter this time after picking up his third just 91 seconds following the half. Crown Point, up eight at the time, managed just two Kingston Rhodes baskets over the next 6:29, and an 8-0 Indians run to end the period, tied the game. Garrett Clark's rebound basket at the buzzer made it 39-38 and Michael Wellman tacked on a free throw to tie it after Bryce Peters was tagged for a technical for slamming the ball in frustration.
"I had an itch to steal the scoreboard clock and not stop the clock," Bulldogs coach Clint Swan said. "Every time I looked up, it seemed like no time was running off. I was pleased with how the guys just battled. It was unfortunate situation at the end of the quarter. That was the time to buckle, but they didn't. They found a way, they were able to reverse momentum there."
The teams were tied five times in a tense fourth quarter, the margin never exceeding three. Clark scored three straight Portage baskets as the Indians took a 56-54 edge in the final minute. They had the ball, looking to drain clock, but a turnover on an inbounds pass led to two Shaw free throws at 0:34.
"Forty seconds left, up two, the ball out of bounds. I know we missed a couple free throws," Indians coach Bryon Clouse said. "Those are two things I'm going to be thinking of for a long time. It's a whole game of 36 minutes, I understand there's a lot of other things. I did say free throws or a layup. We had a brain fart on the screen, we didn't screen, it was tough getting it in, and we kind of panicked."
Portage had the last shot of regulation, but Clark's fadeaway in the lane rimmed off.
"He's the king of the off-balance, one-footer, hop away," Clouse said. "He's been doing it for four years. He'd been taking it to the rack, but they overplayed his right, made him go left."
Rhodes' 3 broke a 58-58 tie with 1:50 left in OT. After splitting free throws, Shaw, playing with four fouls, got a piece of a Sam Wellman shot and Quinn Begley's layup put CP up six.
"I get in foul trouble every now and then," Shaw said. "I'm in the game for a reason, to be aggressive. If I'm in foul trouble and coach didn't trust me, he'd take me out. Just be vertical. We knew Portage kind of struggled with guys finishing in the paint, we had to use that to our advantage, high hands. Of course I was a little anxious sitting on the bench, watching them come back, but I knew our guys would take care of business. They all got a dog in them. We're all Bulldogs at the end of the day. I believe in them. Me and my boys, we go at it. I know in a game like this, we're not going against anybody, we're just going against ourselves."
Portage pulled within 65-62, but Rhodes, who stashed a season-high 20 points, dropped in two foul shots with 23 seconds left and an Indians miss sealed the outcome.
"I was just letting my shots come to me," Rhodes said. "I'm not always going to get it, so I always let it come to me first. I was just ready to knock down my shot and do whatever I have to do for the team. It was definitely personal. It wasn't our best game (the first time), they tried to make us look like punks. We had to come back better, do what we had to do and come out with the win. After losing to this team by 24, everyone was expecting us to lose. We were definitely a better team. That wasn't us. We brought it. That's who we are."
Despite the two-loss record, Swan wasn't quite sure how his team's psyche would be facing the Indians again. They showed they were just fine, splashing four 3s in the first quarter and six in the first half to hold a 30-27 edge.
"That whole game was a mess because they were the better team. They just kicked our heads in. There's no other way to say it," he said. "I was so worried about it, we might come out and have the yips the first part of the game, having flashbacks from what happened. Dikembe's the best player in the area, and Kingston's the most underappreciated player in the area. Both are really special players. We needed them to show up in the biggest moment and they did. They hit the big shots, came up with the big rebounds.
Michael Wellman (21) and Clark (13) topped Portage (20-6), which shot just 4-of-16 from the arc.
"We came out a little nervous, our first time, that's where their experience helps, being here last year," Clouse said. "We knew (Shaw) was going to be pissed off from the last time. He's a bull in the China shop with a lot of damn talent. They went to him early, we weathered the storm. Even when we came back, he did really well in the fourth. We never got our shooting touch. We just couldn't hit. That's the way it goes sometimes."
Crown Point (22-2) captured back-to-back regional titles for the first time.
"Any time you get humbled, you want to respond to it," Swan said. "They were chomping at the bit to prove to everybody they could play with (Portage), and we were able to. That's not a good team, that's a great team. If we were playing anybody else, I would have been rooting for them. I wish more people had seen them play. I tell people how good they are, you don't appreciate them until you see them."
The loss marked the end of high school basketball for four Portage seniors who had 15 years of varsity experience among them.
"Three of them were playing as freshmen," Clouse said. "They came in, we had to mix in some younger kids with older kids. I'm super proud of the group. It's going to sting for a couple days. It should, it's the damn regional. If it didn't, why are we doing this? To see that crowd, to see that community support, the way the seniors turned the program around, playing here was pretty damn neat. It's going to be a game people talk about for a long time. Unfortunately, we're on the wrong end of it."
Clouse hopes the season can be a springboard to more success, even as the team transitions to a largely new group. The JV was undefeated, the freshman team had their first winning season in a while, and the Willowcreek Middle School teams were 18-2 and undefeated.
"The thing I just said in the locker room, a lot of people were leaving Portage, they didn't want to stay and do the hard work," he said. "They wanted to go to what they thought were greener pastures. Being from Portage, that pissed us off. They won 60-some games, conference, sectional, that's all awesome, but to see them stay and have success because they wanted to see the team they grew up watching succeed and be the people still here signing shirts for little kids, that's what I'm going to be most proud of. I hope they all stay. You know how it goes nowadays. You've got to recruit your own kids. I hope they see coach Clouse can coach you to a championship. If we hadn't done that, I don't know. Now they know, with hard work, they can do this."
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