Indians wear down 59ers

MERRILLVILLE — One sign of a good team is being able to capitalize on the opposition’s mistakes.

Lake Central (18-2) made Andrean pay for its 23 turnovers and some untimely defensive lapses when the two teams tangled Tuesday night.

The Indians — leading 17-13 after the opening quarter and 28-16 at halftime — opened the second half with a 15-1 run to cruise to a 64-36 victory over the 59ers (5-14).

Gina Rubino led Lake Central with a game-high 15 points — swishing 5-of-7 3-point attempts.

“Gina took rhythm 3s tonight and when she takes them in rhythm, they go in more times than not,’’ LC coach Marc Urban said.

Tara Zlotkowski finished with 13 points, while Lindsay Kusbel scored nine of her 12 points in the second half for the Indians.

Kusbel also grabbed a game-high eight rebounds, while Megan Krol had seven assists and four steals and played a solid floor game.

“At halftime, we talked about being good defensively, because we weren’t as sound in the first half as we needed to be,’’ Urban said. “The seniors (Rolanda Curington and Chrissy Addison) talked about it. I thought we came out with a lot of energy in the third quarter.’’

The Indians, who shot 45.5 percent in the second half after converting only 33.3 percent in the first two periods, definitely looked energized to open the second half.

The Indians’ 15-1 run left the 59ers reeling as they found themselves in a 43-17 hole.

“Lake Central is such a good team that if you don’t hustle or have a defensive lapse, they’re going to take advantage of it and they’re going to score,’’ 59ers coach Tony Scheub said. “I think we got tired and when you get tired you sometimes tend to lose your focus. We gave them a lot of easy baskets there (third quarter) and you can’t give them easy baskets — if you do, they’re going to kill you, so you have to make them work for them.’’

Scheub was also disappointed with the results of 50-50 ball situations.