Andy Samuelson was cool under pressure.
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The senior forward made four free throws in the final 33.1 seconds Friday night as LaPorte rallied for a 58-53 Duneland Athletic Conference win at Michigan City.
Samuelson shot 1-for-5 from the foul line before going 4-for-4 when it mattered most.
“I’ve never been that bad a free-throw shooter,” Samuelson said. “I just had to have confidence and be clutch for my team.”
Slicers coach Tom Wells had confidence in Samuelson.
“That’s what you want your seniors to do,” Wells said. “That’s a senior who wants to be there.”
The Wolves (12-5, 1-2) played all but 19 seconds of the final 5:33 without Jaronde Boyd, and the Slicers (12-3, 2-1) capitalized. The senior point guard injured his left ankle, according to coach and father John Boyd. Jaronde Boyd had a game-high 21 points before exiting.
“He was our offensive rhythm,” John Boyd said. “We needed other guys to step into roles fast, and they couldn’t do it. LaPorte saw it in our eyes. They’re well-coached, and when they smell blood in the water, they go.
“That’s a Duneland Conference game. They’re going to be possession games, and they took advantage of their opportunities, and we didn’t.”
Jaronde Boyd’s 3-pointer with six minutes left in the third quarter gave Michigan City a 36-28 lead. But LaPorte came all the way back, tying the score at 50-50 on Garrott Ott-Large’s 3-pointer with 3:17 left in the fourth.
Owen Strieter scored to give the Slicers a 52-51 lead with 2:05 left. After Keishawn Lewis scored for the Wolves, Ben Dermody put LaPorte back in front 54-53 with 1:07 left.
Samuelson hit two free throws with 33.1 seconds left. After the Wolves missed a 3-pointer with eight seconds left, Samuelson made two more free throws with 5.6 seconds to go.
“It’s a huge rivalry and a huge win,” Samuelson said. “We always want to beat these guys.”
Dermody led LaPorte with 14 points, and Samuelson added 12.
Lewis had 18 for Michigan City, including 15 in the first half.
LaPorte took a 15-7 lead with a little more than a minute left in the first quarter when Scott Cooper hit a 3-pointer.
But Michigan City grabbed the lead, 24-23, with 5:45 left in the half on Boyd’s 3-pointer, which hit the back of the rim before bouncing straight up and through the net. That shot was part of a 9-0 run for the Wolves, bookended by a pair of baskets by Lewis, that gave them a 28-23 lead.
“I’m just really proud of our grind,” Wells said. “We were playing at their speed, and then we made some adjustments and really executed well offensively and defensively.
“There was no quit in our kids.”
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