United boys surge past Portage to repeat as Heritage champions
Feb. 11—INDIANA — The Portage Mustangs appeared ready to blow United straight out of Ed Fry Arena. The West Section champion Lions recovered their bearings, took advantage of Andrew Miko's absence and cruised to their second consecutive Heritage Conference basketball championship by virtue of a 58-48 victory on Friday night at Ed Fry Arena.
"We just battled through that adversity, and I'm proud of our guys because they stuck together and did what they had to do to pull this one out," United coach Matt Rodkey said.
Miko, Portage's leading scorer, did not play because of injury. He watched the game in street clothes.
"He's a great athlete. He runs up and down. He's a little bit of a game-changer," Rodkey said.
"I saw him on the sideline and it was a bit of a relief because he would change the game a great deal," United senior Joseph Marino said.
United's seniors played, well, like seniors. Brad Felix led all scorers with 23 points.
"Brad is such a hard worker. He leads by example. The guys just follow him," Rodkey said.
Marino added 17 points, and Dylan Dishong contributed 10. Tyler Robertson is the lone sophomore starter.
"We have the four seniors (also Ian Friday) and Isaac (Worthington's) the fifth starter," Rodkey said. "These guys stuck together the whole way through. None of them played varsity basketball as freshmen. Their first year in varsity basketball was 10th grade. Fortunately for me, that was my first year to coach.
"So what a blessing it is for me to coach these guys."
The East Section champion Mustangs (22-1) used a power move by Luke Scarton and 3-point field goals by Scarton and Trae Kargo to assume an 8-0 lead in the game's first three minutes.
"We said, 'We can't play any worse than that.' That was our mentality going into the second half, because that was rock-bottom," Marino said.
Portage threatened to blow the game open when Mason Kargo connected on a 3-pointer that gave the Mustangs a 27-15 lead with 3:53 left before halftime.
"The nerves might have gotten to us a couple of times at the beginning. We turned the ball over. The defense wasn't the best," Felix said. "But we fixed it in the second half, and started to take it to the hoop and scoring."
United accelerated the tempo, the momentum changed from that point.
Felix led the Lions on an 11-2 run with a 3-pointer and three baskets, however, to push United within three at the break.
"We don't play that well slow. We like to play fast," Rodkey said.
"We had to get into transition."
Marino's reverse layup capped off an 8-0 run that gave the Lions their first lead of the night, 34-33, with 3:54 left in the third period.
"Joe's so scrappy. He takes charges and gets on the floor. Dylan's like the Energizer Bunny. Tyler's defense has gotten so much better, and everyone knows he can shoot it," Rodkey said.
The situation became even direr for the Mustangs when Mason Kargo picked up his fourth personal foul 23 seconds later. Portage coach Travis Kargo blamed foul trouble as a factor in his team's downturn.
"We had a couple of starters who had multiple fouls in the second quarter, which made them play a little less aggressive," he said. "I'm trying to take them off the floor so they don't get the third (personal), and it led to a run for them right before the half."
United scored the final 18 points of the third period, and took a 42-33 lead into the final frame.
"We shot the lights out. That was probably the best shooting game we've had," Rodkey said.
Mason Kargo led the Mustangs with 12 points, followed by Scarton (11).
"We didn't shoot great. Credit to United. I didn't think we played as well. We probably lost poise with some of the foul trouble," Coach Kargo said.
River Valley held off backyard rival Homer-Center, 36-31, in the girls' championship game.
The Panthers raised their record to 21-2. Homer-Center (16-6) was the reigning conference champion.
District 6 will release its full basketball playoff schedule on Thursday.
