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 Porta had beaten the Toppers twice early in the season, but both
times Mount Pulaski was playing without 5'11 junior Lilly Pickett.
In Thursday night's contest Pickett scored a team-leading 12 points
and even though Mount Pulaski played a good game, the Blue Jays took
advantage of a sluggish third quarter by the Toppers and that made
all the difference.
Porta outscored Mount Pulaski 19-5 in that third quarter. "Take the
third quarter away and I don't think we played bad the other three
quarters," said Coach Eric Leever. "I was really happy with the
first quarter and it was a decent first half," he added.
The Lady Toppers got on the board first with a basket by Pickett off
an offensive rebound. Pickett would also rebound a missed layup by
Alec Hayes and put that back up for two more points and the early
4-0 Mount Pulaski lead. Porta opened their scoring with a long three
and following a foul by Hayes, Porta took the 5-4 lead with two free
throws. Alyssa Bridge hit a three to give Mount Pulaski the lead
back 7-5. After Porta knotted the score at seven, it was Bridge
again with a three and the 10-7 lead back in favor of Mount Pulaski.
Pickett extended that lead to 12-7 as she scored on another
offensive rebound. With four seconds left in the first quarter Porta
hit a nice baseline jumper and the score was 12-9 in favor of the
Lady Toppers.
 Following a quick bucket by Porta in the second quarter, Lizzie Ford
hit nothing but net from the baseline for Mount Pulaski and the Lady
Toppers held onto a 14-11 lead. Bridge found Ford open on the next
Lady Toppers possession and following a beautiful pass Ford was able
to score and Mount Pulaski's lead was maintained at 16-13. A couple
costly Lady Topper turnovers allowed Porta to take the lead 17-16
with 4:41 on the second quarter clock. It was Ford again with the
nice baseline move that once again swished in for two points and she
was fouled on the play. After she sank the free throw the lead was
once again in Mount Pulaski's column, 19-17. The sharp-shooting Blue
Jays took the lead back with a three but Hayes, who likes to pop one
every now and then from the top of the key, did just that at the
3:18 mark and again it was Mount Pulaski up 22-20. Porta took
advantage of a few Lady Topper mistakes at this point and went on a
7-0 run and led 27-22 with 1:11 left to play in the first half. With
under a minute to play in the first half Pickett found Hayes at the
other end of the court and Hayes was able to catch up to the long
pass and make a nice layup. At halftime both teams headed to the
locker room to catch their breath as Porta held onto a 28-24 lead.
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"Porta came out shooting lights out in the third quarter," said
Coach Eric Leever and was he ever right on the money. The Blue Jays
ran off nine straight points on the Lady Toppers before BreAnn
Rentmeister finally hit a two from the paint at the 5:00 mark to
close the gap a little, 37-26. Porta wasted no time scoring again
though, with another three to extend the lead to 40-26. Porta
continued to pass the ball well and wait for a good shot in this
third quarter and in return they outscored the Lady Toppers 19-5 and
led 44-29 at the end of three.
The Lady Toppers continued to have bright spots in the fourth
quarter as Pickett made some nice moves and proved she can hit the
turnaround jumper. She scored six of her points in the fourth
quarter. Bridge also continued with her hot hand as she hit her
third three of the night to keep Mount Pulaski within reach, 46-34.
Porta just got hotter, too, though and sealed the victory in the
final minutes by going 4-4 at the free throw line. The final score
was 54-38.
Looking ahead to next week the Lady Toppers play at Pawnee on
Monday, at Riverton on Thursday and return home on January 17th for
a rare Saturday night contest starting at 4:30 versus St. Teresa.
Lady Toppers scoring vs. Porta:
Pickett 12
Bridge 9
Hayes 8
Ford 7
Rentmeister 2
[Teena Lowery]
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