By Drake Skleba
For the Bugle
On Friday afternoon Joliet West and the host Porter girls of Lockport met in a rare Friday afternoon nonconference matinee. With the Lockport and Joliet West students off on Christmas break the neighborhood rivals went after each other in a spirited contest.
Joliet West’s junior standout Jazz Evans entered this afternoon’s contest second in the area in scoring with a 19-points-per-game average. After scoring eight points, picking up four steals and dishing out three assists, Evans went to the bench with her third foul with 3:45 left in the half. The Tigers were up 21-17.
Enter Tiger sophomore Maliyah Walker.
Walker came off the bench and scored eight points igniting a 10-3 first-half closing run to give the Tigers a commanding 31-20 halftime lead. Joliet West (5-10) rolled in the second half to the 58-45 win. Walker would finish the game with 10 points, six rebounds and two assists.
“I work hard everyday to be able to perform well in situations like in the second quarter,” Walker said. “It felt very good to help us get this big win. Jazz is a great player.”
With 6:04 in the third quarter, Evans rolled her ankle after her sixth steal and had to leave the game. Led by freshman, Grace Walsh and sophomore Ashanti Brown (10 points, three rebounds, assist, steal) the Tigers would again increase their lead with their star player on the bench.
Evans returned with 2:58 remaining in the third quarter and the Tigers comfortably ahead 44-27. Evans, would improve on her 19 point per game average, scoring 20 points, with the six steals, three assists and four rebounds.
“This was a good win for us today,” Evans said. “Mailyah and a number of the girls played well for us to get this win. This will give us confidence as we head into the Peotone tournament.”
Walsh added another double-double to her resume, scoring 14 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. She added three assists and a pair of steals to her outstanding afternoon
“We really needed this win heading into the holiday tournament at Peotone,“ Walsh said. “Mailyah gave us a big lift in the second quarter when Jazz went to the bench with her third foul.I played well today but as always, I could not have been successful without my teammates.”
Lockport (5-10) was led by their 6-foot-3 junior Jenna Cotter, who just missed a double-double with 10 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Porter sophomore Sawyer Hollatz also scored 10 points for Lockport.
“We played very hard today, but we must improve,” Cotter said. “We have not been playing well as of late. All of my success today I owe to my teammates. They gave me the ball in perfect position to score.”
The Porters have a Dec. 26 morning date with the area’s third-ranked Mustangs of Downers Grove South (8-3) in the opening-game of the Oswego East Holiday Classic Tournament at 10 am.
“Give credit to the Joliet girls,” Lockport head coach Dan Kelly said. “They took away our ability, to get the ball down low to our bigs. We didn’t play well defensively. When we were able to get the ball down low Jenna (Cotter) and Sawyer (Hollatz), were able to score.”
The Tigers will take on Beecher (13-3) in Peotone’s Blue Devil Holiday Tournament on Thursday, Dec. 27.
“We really played well today,” Joliet West coach John Placher said. “Maliyah really gave us a huge lift, off the bench when Jazz picked up her third foul. When Jazz went down with her ankle injury, in the third quarter, again our bench played well to extend the lead. Off to Peotone for the Holiday Tournament, where we will be facing some very good teams.”