The Minooka basketball team kicked off their season with a game against Lockport. The Indians’ suffered a loss 64-57 at the WJOL tournament played in the University of St. Francis gymnasium on Nov. 22. 

Turnovers were a big miscue in the Indians’ loss. 

“Playing against a good team against a good team like Lockport, turnovers can’t happen,” head coach Kevin Cain said. “We have to get better of taking care of the basketball.” 

Senior Trevor Hudak kicked off the scoring early hitting two early threes to make the game 10-9 early in the first. Hudak finished the game with 9 points. 

In the second quarter Lockport started to stretch their leading getting up to 11 and the score was 31-20.

“We did not stop the runs of Lockport very well,” Hudak said.

In the 3rd quarter, senior Adrian Manning got the nod making a fast break bucket and making a three to make the score 41-31 Lockport. 

The Lockport lead eventually got bigger with the Porters taking a lead 49-31 in the third quarter. Even though the Indians were down 18 points, they were not going down without a fight.

The Minooka comeback was led by senior Ricky Hill Jr., scoring 18 points, 4 assists and 4 steals. Manning also had 10 points.

“Even though we were trailing the whole game we stayed composed,” Hill said. “We started to catch fire and showed fight through the whole game.”

In the mist of the comeback the Minooka defense was playing stellar, forcing the Porters to force a handful of turnovers of their own. Also, Hill Jr. had a big time steal along with a block in the 4th.

Demarcus Lee had a big time steal to create a fast break bucket to Hudak to make the score 53-48 late in the 4th quarter.

The Indians were within 2 points late in the fourth quarter but could not finish the comeback.

“The team fought in the 4th quarter and showed a ton of grit and toughness,” Cain said.