The Merrillville Pirates are taking a road trip to challenge the Portage Indians at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Merrillville has now lost seven straight, leaving the team hunting for their first win since December 27.
Last Saturday, Merrillville ended up a good deal behind Munster and lost 64-50.
Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Portage). They claimed a resounding 77-49 victory over Lake Central. Given Portage's advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 57th, while Lake Central is ranked 245th), the result on Friday wasn't entirely unexpected.
Merrillville better keep an eye on Garrett Clark. He was instrumental in Portage's win, going 5 for 8 on his way to 13 points and five rebounds. O'Mari Evans was another key player, putting up 11 points and five boards.
Portage was working as a unit and finished the game with 17 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Lake Central only racked up six assists.
Portage is on a roll lately: they've won three of their last four contests, which provided a nice bump to their 10-4 record this season. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.3 points per game. As for Merrillville, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-11.
Merrillville suffered a grim 64-40 defeat to Portage in their previous meeting back in December of 2024. Can Merrillville avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
