There was no letdown for the Lockport Township High School boys basketball team.

Any thoughts that the Porters would not be motivated because they didn’t get another shot at SouthWest Suburban Blue foe Sandburg were put to rest fairly early last Friday.

In its biggest game of the season thus far, Lockport jumped out to a 15 point halftime lead and went on to win by its largest margin this season, defeating host Romeoville 66-36 for the championship of the Romeoville Class 4A Regional on March 5.

“The kids are realizing what I’ve been telling them all season,” Lockport coach Lawrence Thompson, Jr. said. “We’re playing an inside-out game, playing defense and rebounding. We’ve prepared all season for this.”

The win was the seventh straight for the Porters (21-8), who played Joliet Township, a 56-40 winner over host Bloom, in the semifinals of the Homewood-Flossmoor Sectional this past Tuesday.

It was the fourth meeting this season between the Porters and JT. After losing the first game in overtime, Lockport won the two SouthWest Suburban Blue matchups.

Lockport is 12-3 in the down-to-the wire affairs. But one of those losses was 52-48 in overtime to JT in the title game of the Plainfield North Holiday Tournament on December 19, 2009.

The other two losses were both to No. 4 sectional seed Sandburg, which was expected to play the Porters for a third time in the regional title game. But that didn’t happen because No. 17 seeded Romeoville rallied from 11 points down in the fourth quarter to edge the Eagles 52-50 on Wednesday, March 3.

That put the Spartans in the regional title game for the first time in 16 years. They finished the season at 9-19.

So Romeoville came into the game with nothing to lose. But that didn’t fool the fifth seeded Porters.

“They (Romeoville) upset Sandburg (which finished 17-9) and coach Thompson made sure we knew this wasn’t an easy game,” said Lockport senior point guard Eric Lantero, who started almost all season, but came off the bench last Friday to score a season-high eight points. “We worked our butts off.

“We were switching defense from a 1-3-1 to a man trap and that kept making us think.”

It also kept the Spartans from ever finding a rhythm. They put together a 14-1 game ending run to beat Sandburg, but last Friday a Romeoville run never came.

The Spartans biggest spurt was five straight points in the third quarter. That came right after Lockport had opened the second half with a 14-0 run. Senior forward Karrington Ward had five of his game-high 13 points in the burst, which put the Porters ahead 45-16 with 3:00 to play in the quarter.

Sophomore guard Bo Goshorn (six points) finally put Romeoville on the board in the second half with a three-pointer from the right-wing with 2:46 left in the quarter. But the Spartans never got closer than 23, at 47-24 in the opening 15 seconds of the fourth quarter. Lockport led by as many as 33.

“The kids had great hustle and effort,” Thompson said. “We still try to play faster than we should at time, but defense has to be a consistent for us.

“We’ve got a lot of talent and I knew that. It’s all between the ears. We’ve come a long way, but this is still the tip of the iceberg.”

Karrington Ward added six rebounds and two blocks. Senior center Landon Gamble had 12 points and six boards and senior forward Ed Ward (five rebounds) and senior guard D’Monte Hopkins (seven rebounds) each finished with 11 points for the Porters.

“We’ve got our team together now,” Hopkins said. “We brought some sophomores up before and everyone is used to each other now. We are just going out and getting the job done.”

Junior guard Donald Miller led Romeoville with 10 points. Junior guard Harrison Hines and senior forward Kordel Smith - who made the winning layup against Sandburg with three seconds to play, each added seven points for the Spartans, who never led.

“Larry (Thompson) does a great job with those guys,” Romeoville coach Jeff Bambule said. “I think they’re the premier program in the area and that’s where we aspire to be.

“It’s just a credit to their defense. They contested every shot we took and that’s why they are where they are.”

The game was tied once, at 5-5 on a three-pointer by Hines with 5:35 left in the first quarter. The youngest Ward brother, sophomore guard Kyle Ward - who hit a three-pointer to open the scoring, then hit another trey to put the Porters ahead for good. Lockport led 12-8 after one quarter and then got the ball inside.

“We knew we were a lot bigger than them,” said Gamble, who was on the Porters Class 4A fourth place team two years ago. “They were trying some double teams and the team was able to get the ball down low to me. It feels good to win the regional.”

The Spartans won’t forget getting to the regional final. They weren’t supposed to win the opening game on Monday, March 1, but defeated No. 13 seeded Thornridge 62-48 behind 24 points by Smith.

“You still can’t take away what our kids did by getting here,” Bambule said. “I think in a lot of way basketball has become an individual game, but these guys were a unit. We’ll look back and say what a great job we did as a team.”

Lockport played Romeoville in the third game of the season for each team. That was on November 27 at the WJOL Thanksgiving Classic at the University of St. Francis. The Porters pulled away from a 13-9 halftime lead to win 46-26.

In the regional semifinals, Hopkins scored a game-high 23 points as the Porters jumped all over 12th seeded Andrew and went on to a 59-36 victory. With the win Lockport registered its third 20 win campaign in the last four seasons and it was the 32nd time the Porters reached 20 victories in their history.

Friday’s regional title is the 27th in Lockport boys basketball history and 25th in the last 46 years. The Porters also won a district title in 1932.

Current Lockport assistant John Meyer was Romeoville head coach when the Spartans won their only regional title in 1994 and advanced to the sectional title game. The Spartans also won one in 1986, defeating Lockport 41-39 in the regional title game, and finished fourth in the state in Class AA. But they had to forfeit the season for use of an ineligible player.