LOCKPORT – Most varsity basketball coaches want a team of experienced players to be on the floor. Those players have generally made mistakes, learned from them on the lower levels and used that knowledge to become seasoned veterans by the time they reach varsity.

This season at Lockport, though, things are quite a bit different.

The Porters, who beat Providence Catholic 41-38 on Tuesday to improve to 9-12 on the season, have just one senior – Veronica Bafia – on their 13-person roster. Four juniors, namely Chelsea Brooks, Kayla Wagner, Lucy Hynes and Alaina Peetz, are also on the roster. Although Peetz is out for the season with an injury, she still sits on the bench and offers encouragement, as well as the knowledge she has gained since being a starter in her freshman and sophomore seasons.

The remaining nine players are either freshmen or sophomores getting their first taste of varsity basketball this season.

That’s fine with Lockport coach Darien Jacobs.

“We have a talented group of younger players,” Jacobs said about the group that consists of sophomores Addison Way, Gabriella Pastrana, Laura Aristikaitis, Armante Dambrauskas and Makenna Klacko, along with freshmen Katie Peetz, Sophie Hynes and Evelyn Ingram. “We’re kind of throwing them into the fire on the varsity level right now so that when they get to be juniors and seniors, they will have seen varsity basketball and will be a step ahead.”

“We’re kind of throwing them into the fire on the varsity level right now so that when they get to be juniors and seniors, they will have seen varsity basketball and will be a step ahead.”

—  Darien Jacobs, Lockport girls basketball coach

Playing in the SouthWest Suburban Blue against such teams as Bolingbrook, Homewood-Flossmoor and Lincoln-Way East also gives the young Porters plenty of learning opportunities.

“Our side of the conference is loaded, year in and year out,” Jacobs said. “Bolingbrook and H-F are always among the top teams in the state, and Lincoln-Way East is right up there with them. Our younger players are getting a firsthand look at what it takes to be at that level, and that’s the level we want our program to get to.”

Being the lone senior on the squad is a role Bafia enjoys.

“I just want to be a good leader and a good role model,” she said. “The younger players look to me for leadership. I tell them where to be on the floor on both offense and defense, and they go all out to do whatever we need.

“We’ve been getting better as the season has gone on, and I think we will only keep getting better the more we play together and maybe surprise a team or two in the postseason.”

In the win over Providence, Aristikaitis led the Porters with 12 points, with Lucy Hynes scoring nine, Ingram eight and Bafia seven. It’s that kind of balance that makes Lockport dangerous.

“It has been interesting with all of us young girls playing,” Aristikaitis said. “We are getting better by competing against the older girls on the other teams.

“We don’t care who scores, as long as somebody does.”

Jacobs also appreciates the youthful exuberance his team shows.

“Our girls go after rebounds and loose balls,” he said. “They just go out there and play hard. That’s something that can always be done. The X’s and O’s of offense and defense can be taught, and we are teaching them, but the hustle and joy of playing can’t be taught, and these girls have that.

“We want our program to get up to the level of the other teams in our conference. We feel like this is a good way to do that.”

And while the Porters will lose Bafia and her experience at the end of the season, they will gain Alaina Peetz’s talents and experience next year.

“Alaina has such great moves around the basket,” Jacobs said. “She just has that natural instinct to be able to get a shot off, and she has two years of experience doing that. She will be a big help for us next year when all these other girls have another year of experience as well.”