La PORTE -- Their dad Nick was arguably the best quarterback to ever play at Portage, leading the Indians to the Class 5A state finals in 1994, but it's the basketball court where twin Michael and Sam Wellman have made their names at the same school.
Friday at La Porte, they earned their own place in Portage's athletics history, lighting up Slicer Gym with a combined seven 3-pointers in the third quarter of a 79-54 blowout. The win gave Portage a share of its first Duneland Conference title since 1988, when their dad, now an assistant coach on their team, was about 10 years old.
"Me, Michael, Garrett, we're all pretty much triplets, playing basketball since we were three years old," Sam said, recalling fist fights on the driveway with his brother when they were younger. "It's always been our dream to win this and eventually a sectional. Playing with him's a dream come true. I think every kid who's got a brother growing up dreams of winning something and playing with their brother, especially at this level we are now."
Sam scored 19 points, matched by O'Mari Evans, another senior, Michael notched 15 and freshman Bryce Kobe added 11, the four combining for a school-record-tying 15 3s.
"We grew up watching Portage basketball, we were ball boys," Michael said. "To win for Portage is really cool. I think we feed off each other as a team. You see a guy hit and that gives everybody on the team confidence. Once one guy starts hitting, it seems like everybody can start hitting. When you start hitting like that, every shot you take, you know it's going in. That confidence comes with putting in the work, preparation."
The Indians dictated the first half with their defense, using their length in a half-court trap to unnerve La Porte, which managed just 19 points in the span, before the perimeter fireworks display in the third.
"(Best) ever is hard to say," Portage coach Bryon Clouse said. "Chesterton, we struggled. Obviously, we came with a different game plan. We were going to push the tempo. We've got guys we feel that can do it. I might have held them back and we didn't pressure Chesterton enough. I dealt with that for a couple days and I decided. let them be more free and shoot the ball more. It's contagious. It happened the other night, it was bad. It happened tonight where you see your buddies, you get your bench involved, even the JV game, Josiah Brown was nailing 3s and everybody was going nuts."
Sam Wellman drilled four triples, Michael popped three and Kobe added another during the 30-point stretch that doubled Portage's 12-point halftime lead. La Porte made three 3-balls of its own and scored 18 points in the period, but simply couldn't keep up.
"I think we showed we have a pretty deep bench and they didn't go so deep," Clouse said. "They had some guys out on top of that. We wore them out probably. We just kept the legs (fresh) and kept subbing, they had to play the same dudes. Their shots are falling short and we start hitting our rhythm. Like I told the boys, you don't get a second chance at opportunities like this many times even in life, not only conference championships. We put ourselves in position, we've got to capitalize. It was awesome."
Evans drained back-to-back 3s to start the fourth, expanding the margin to its largest at 30 (67-37).
"The rim was really big tonight," Evans said. "I had to get to my scoring average. This night means a lot. We haven't won conference in 37 years. Us four, with Garrett (Clark), built this from the ground up."
The Wellmans, Evans and Clark have all played since they were freshmen, which coincided with Clouse's first year at his former high school. Portage has won 60 games in that span, marking the first time since the 1940s that the program has won 14-plus games over four consecutive seasons.
"If you work your butt off and nothing comes, the next group might not work so hard," Clouse said. "They worked their butts off and now their conference champions. Now the next group's got to know how hard it has to work, all the extra shots and extra effort they put in. We've got five guys who are 34 percent or higher (shooting 3s). They didn't just pop out shooters, they had to work themselves into that. We've talked about it all year. You're going to be on the wall forever. You'll walk in there when you're 50 and say, here I am. That's the best part of it, they get to celebrate together."
The timing of the performance was perfect for Sam Wellman, a 46 percent shooter from the arc. His future coach, Bethel's Steve Drabyn, was back at La Porte, where he scored 1,417 points as player, and was honored before the game for his selection to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Silver Anniversary team.
"Sadly, he had that La Porte shirt on," Wellman joked. "I love that guy. I've watched his highlights ever since he started recruiting me. I think I just stepped into a role of doing what I had to do on a certain night, giving them the ball if they're hitting. Tonight, everybody couldn't miss. Whoever was open took the shot."
Portage shares conference honors with Crown Point. The Indians knocked off the Bulldogs two weeks ago, but lost at Chesterton last week.
"After the Chesterton game, we came together," said Michael, who will play at Grace College. "This week of practice been really good. We were dialed in from Monday, ready to go, watching film to see where we needed to improve on, play harder, rebound. We were all kind of pissed off about the loss, so we needed to take it out on someone. We locked in from get go and did what we needed to do."
La Porte's Sawyer Tonagel eyes a rebound between Garrett Clark and Daylon Powell of Portage. (Photo by Mike Kellems)
La Porte's Destin Matzke has a shot blocked by Me'Trell Harbin of Portage in Friday's game. (Photo by Mike Kellems)
Comments