The South Bend Washington Panthers had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 13 points), and they went ahead and made it five on Saturday. They narrowly escaped with a win as the team sidled past La Porte 68-65. Given South Bend Washington's advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 35th, while La Porte is ranked 158th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead South Bend Washington to victory, but perhaps none more so than Da'Kori Parker, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 13 assists. That makes it three consecutive games in which Parker has scored at least 25% of South Bend Washington's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Donovan Johnson, who scored 24 points.
When it comes to explaining why La Porte lost, one person who can't be blamed is Nic Spence. Despite the final result, he dropped a double-double on 33 points and 13 rebounds. The contest was Spence's third in a row with at least ten points. Griffin Ott-Large was another key contributor, scoring 12 points.
South Bend Washington's win was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 5-1. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 76.7 points per game. As for La Porte, they now have a losing record at 2-3.
South Bend Washington will be home for the holidays to greet Warsaw at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. As for La Porte, they will head out on the road to face off against Griffith at 7:00 p.m. on Friday.
