The Lincoln-Way East girls basketball team defeated the visiting Lockport Porters 47-41 on Thursday, avenging two previous losses to their conference foe earlier this season.

The Porters, currently in second place in the Southwest Suburban Conference, had beaten the Griffins 33-30 on Dec. 11 and 44-26 on Dec. 20.

In Frankfort on Thursday night, the Griffins wrote a different story, earning a wire-to-wire win in a hard-fought matchup between the two teams. The Griffins were led by junior Kaitlyn Dykstra, who was the game’s leading scorer with 14 points, which included two three-pointers in the fourth quarter to keep Lincoln Way East in the lead.

Senior Kennedy Johnson also added 13 points and seven rebounds for the Griffins.

Dykstra said that this is the type of win the Griffins can build off of.

“This will help us be more confident going into the rest of our games,” Dysktra said. “Even though we lost once, we can still win the second time, so as a team, we never get our heads down.”

Griffins coach Jim Nair said his team showed toughness versus a quality opponent.

“We do not match up great with them,” Nair said. “Our girls battled. We had a size disadvantage, but they battled, and that makes me proud.”

Nair discussed the importance of coming out ready to play when facing an in-conference opponent.

This is a great conference where anybody can beat anybody on any given night, Nair said. ”This is the third time we’ve played them, so we know them pretty well, and they know us pretty well,” Nair said.

Nair said there was not a lot of change in his game plan leading into tonight.

“Coming into tonight, we made a few minor adjustments, but in the end, the difference was that our girls just executed better today than they did in the previous two times we have faced them.”

Junior Evelyn Ingram led Lockport in scoring on the night with 13 points, while sophomore Molly Curtis added nine points for the Porters.

Lockport managed to keep the game within striking distance through the first three quarters, but could not catch the Griffins in the fourth.

Anita Robinson, who took over coaching duties for the night with head coach Darien Jacobs out, said her team played hard but ran out of gas.

“The first half we were in our own heads, but we came out in the second half and played a lot harder,” Robinson said. “I just think we got tired in the end.”

After a slow start to the season, the Griffins (14-10, 4-5) have now won four out of their last five games and will host Sandburg Tuesday night. The Porters (18-8, 9-3) will go to Homewood Flossmoor on Tuesday, looking to get back in the win column after three straight losses.