Basketball Game Preview: Portage Indians vs. La Porte Slicers

The Portage Indians will venture away from home to challenge the La Porte Slicers at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.

Portage easily dispatched Lake Station Edison on Tuesday, but unfortunately both the margin and the ultimate result were a different story in this one. Portage fell just short of Chesterton by a score of 44-42 on Friday. For those keeping track at home, that's the closest loss the Indians have suffered since January 19, 2024.

Meanwhile, La Porte hadn't done well against Merrillville recently (they were 2-7 in their previous nine matchups), but they didn't let the past get in their way on Friday. La Porte walked away with a 62-55 win over Merrillville. Given the Slicers' advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 103rd, while the Pirates are ranked 260th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Portage's defeat was their first in the conference, dropping their conference record down to 7-1 and their overall record down to 15-5. As for La Porte, they have been performing well recently as they've won three of their last four games, which provided a nice bump to their 14-7 record this season.

Everything came up roses for Portage against La Porte in their previous meeting back in February of 2024, as the squad secured a 77-27 victory. In that match, Portage amassed a halftime lead of 44-17, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Friday.