Lake Central’s improvement in the second half of the season comes down to three words.
“Pride and slide,” Indians coach Dave Milausnic said. “It’s the tiny things like taking pride in sliding our feet.”
That attention to detail on defense Friday night helped Lake Central stifle Munster, ending the Mustangs’ season with a 53-40 semifinal victory in the Class 4A East Chicago Central Sectional.
Playing better defense helped Lake Central (15-11) avenge a 65-54 loss to Munster (13-12) in mid-December.
“It just comes down to your guys being able to guard the ball,” Milausnic said. “Early on this season, we didn’t guard the ball well enough and guys were in the habit of running and helping on the ball. Now we’re guarding the ball better.”
After holding Lowell to 39 points in Wednesday’s sectional opener, Lake Central limited Munster to just 21 points in the first three quarters. The Indians led 47-23 early in the fourth before Munster added some late points with the game out of reach.
Junior Keon Sellers credited Lake Central’s defensive improvement to putting in the extra time.
“We just kept practicing harder and harder until we got it down,” Sellers said. “And, as you can see, it’s been working.”
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Lake Central got much of the offense the Indians needed from junior forward Justin Graciano, who finished with a game-high 16 points.
“He’s been one of the biggest reasons why we’ve played good basketball in the second half of the season,” Milausnic said of Graciano. “We’re not playing on Saturday night if Justin hadn’t matured the way he has this season.”
Munster was led by 11 points from senior Jake Strbjak.
Lake Central’s opponent in Saturday night’s sectional championship will be East Chicago Central after the Cardinals hung on for a 74-69 win over Morton.
With plenty of familiar faces on the court for Morton (15-10), senior Jermaine Couisnard expected a close game all night, even when East Chicago (14-9) threatened to break the game open late.
“We battled with them all night,” he said. “The main things you have to do in this tournament are play defense and rebound the basketball.”
And a little offense doesn’t hurt, either. Couisnard scored a game-high 35 points to lead East Chicago to their third straight sectional championship game.
“I was just running our offense,” Couisnard said. “And letting the ball come to me.”
Couisnard scored 18 points in the first half, but Morton received 16 points from senior Jarel Triplett and 12 from classmate Tyreion Jackson as the Governors took a 42-36 halftime lead.
The Cardinals forced a 53-53 tie by the end of the third quarter and then pulled away in the fourth, thanks in large part to their success at the free-throw line.
East Chicago shot 74 percent (14-for-19) from the line in the second half
Jackson finished with 27 points and Triplett added 26 to lead Morton.
Dave Melton is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.