Boys basketball: LaPorte rallies past Merrillville

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Updated: February 15, 2012 8:11AM

LAPORTE — Look away and it’s over.

That’s how fast and furious the action was in LaPorte’s 71-69 overtime victory over Merrillville on Friday.

There was no perfect time for Pirates coach TJ Lux to call timeout with the ball in Jake Raspopovich’s hands with less than 10 seconds left and the score tied.

Lux, however, had turned to the scorer’s table to ask how many timeouts he had left. He was fully planning on using one to set up a final play for his team and either win it or move onto another overtime.

His plan was foiled when Raspopovich threw the ball in to John Mosely. Mosely, in turn, passed the ball to BJ Jenkins. Josh Fleming got a hand on Jenkin’s pass and one of Fleming’s teammates grabbed the ball and passed it back to a streaking Fleming, who scored the winning layup with a couple of Pirates trailing him with 6.4 seconds left.

For Fleming, it was a matter of ending what the Slicers had started in a pulsating second half.

They erased a 10-point Pirates lead in the third quarter with a furious comeback.

“I just wanted to get it over with,” Fleming said.

Merrillville still had a chance to tie it.

This time, Lux used two time-outs to get the play called.

The Slicers overloaded on Jenkins on the final possession giving Isaiah Wilson a clean look. Wilson’s layup bounced off the rim and a put back at the buzzer by Mosely missed.

It was a frustrating loss for Merrillville. Though it’d be a stretch to say the Pirates controlled the game for about three quarters, they were ahead most of the time.

They also failed to put it away when they took a 43-33 lead with 5:20 left in the third quarter.

For Lux, the final sequence before LaPorte scored its last basket was symbolic of some of the issues the Pirates have had all year. He didn’t want Raspopovich trying to penetrate in that situation and he didn’t want his big man, Mosely, to touch the ball unless he was crashing for a rebound.

Lastly, he wanted a timeout.

“It’s the details and consistency,” Lux said.

The Slicers were able to get back in the game by holding Jenkins, who scored 25 points, down in the second half. Jenkins finished with 17 in the first half. They also were able to hold the Pirates to just one field goal in the fourth quarter.

“That’s the definition of perseverance,” LaPorte coach Tom Wells said.

LaPorte got back into it with the clutch shooting of Fleming (18 points) and Austin Alcorn (20 points).

A Fleming 3-pointer with 7:10 left gave the Slicers a 51-50 lead. It capped a 9-1 run and gave LaPorte its first lead since the first quarter.

“This was great for our kids,” Wells said. “To win in this kind of environment like that is a confidence boost for them.”