Before Tuesday’s Southwest Prairie Conference game against Joliet West, the Minooka girls basketball team honored senior Madelyn Kiper. On Dec. 26 at the Montini Christmas Tournament, Kiper broke the school’s career scoring record, topping the 1,522 points scored by Nina Simotes and the 1,523 scored by Cierra Bachmann. Tuesday was the first home game for the Indians since that game, and Kiper was presented with a plaque to commemorate her achievement.

Kiper, a Kent State commit, finished the game with her customary game-high 22 points, but it was not a typical game for her. Normally deadly from the 3-point line, she missed her first seven 3-point attempts of the game and scored most of her points on drives or cuts to the basket.

It was the Minooka defense that made the difference, as the Indians forced 30 turnovers en route to a 62-32 win that improved their record to 14-3 overall and 6-0 in the SPC. Minooka limited the Tigers to single digits in every quarter.

Minooka senior guard Naya Carter was a key figure on offense and defense for the Indians, constantly pressuring the Tigers’ ballhandlers and pushing the ball up the floor when they turned it over. Carter finished with nine points and five rebounds.

“We have more ways to score than just Madi,” Carter said. “Everyone works well together, and that makes things go a lot smoother. We were able to get a lot of turnovers tonight, and that turned into offense for us.

“Things are going pretty well for us so far. We are learning to play together and stick together as a team, no matter what happens.”

Joliet West (3-13, 1-4) scored the game’s first basket on a short jumper by Jada Thompson, who led the Tigers with 11 points. Minooka then ramped up the defense and forced 10 West turnovers in the first quarter to take a 14-8 lead entering the second. The Indians then scored the first six points of the second quarter to move out to a 20-8 lead. After Keniya Foster scored for West to make it 20-10, Minooka had a 9-0 spurt with six points coming from Kiper, two from Carter and one from Sadie Webb to go ahead 29-10 en route to a 33-16 halftime lead.

“Madelyn was struggling a little bit with her shot tonight,” Minooka coach John Placher said. “Every shot she had was a good one, but they just didn’t fall. We did a good job of getting Joliet West into foul trouble and going to the free-throw line.

“Our defense played really well. We bring in sophomore Sadie Webb and freshman Cailyn O’Brien off the bench, and they really get after it on defense and give us a spark that way.”

Minooka continued to add to its lead in the third quarter. Kiper and West’s Ande Carlson (four points, team-high nine rebounds) traded baskets to start the second half before Minooka had an 11-0 run, Kiper started the run with a jumper in the lane before Carter and Kendall Thomas (8 points) each converted a steal into a layup and Kiper followed with her only 3-pointer of the game and ReNiyah Cunningham capped the run with a fast-break layup. Following a pair of free throws by West’s Thompson, Kiper assisted on a basket by Carter before West’s Maya Zanzola (10 points) and Webb traded 3-pointers to end the quarter.

West got a free throw from Jada Perez to start the fourth quarter, but Kiper assisted on a pair of baskets by Ava Schenck, the second a 3-pointer that put Minooka ahead 56-24 and invoked the running clock the rest of the game.

“Everyone contributed for us tonight,” Placher said. “We were able to get a lot of girls a good amount of playing time. Our schedule coming up is pretty rough, so that experience on the floor is going to help.”