The low point for LaPorte’s Drake Gunn came in a game last season against Hobart.

Now a 6-foot-5 senior forward, Gunn could only watch from the bench as the Slicers lost by two points to the Brickies.

Gunn broke his tibia in his left leg on the first day of tryouts and missed most of the season.

“It took a toll on me,” he said. “It sucks to be a player and not be able to impact a game.”

Gunn has returned in full force, helping LaPorte (8-5, 2-0) get its swag back.

The Slicers won their first two games in the Duneland Athletic Conference. The highlight was last week’s 71-66 win over Chesterton, which beat LaPorte by 38 points last season.

The last time LaPorte started 2-0 in the DAC was in the 2004-2005 season.

The victory also put the rest of the DAC on notice. LaPorte’s a contender after a forgettable 5-17 finish last season, including 0-7 in conference.

Second-year coach Kyle Benge isn’t surprised by the strong start.

Benge worked hard to keep the team together after Gunn and Garrott Ott-Large, a 6-3 junior guard, were hobbled with injuries.

Ott-Large played in 18 games, but Benge said he was never fully recovered from an ACL tear that happened the end of his freshman year.

“He wasn’t 100 percent,” Benge said. “He played as hard as he could, but he couldn’t do a lot of the things he wanted to do.”

Benge said the players are used to his system after a season. He knew if the Slicers stayed healthy, they would be formidable.

“Our guys just got bigger and stronger over the summer and fall and they stayed together,” Benge said.

It starts with Gunn, who’s averaging 17.4 points and 7.4 rebounds and shooting 56 percent from the floor.

Benge, who was an assistant at St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, said Gunn is “one of the most athletic guys I’ve been around. That includes college. He’s gotten so much better in a year.”

Gunn said his injury was cringe-worthy, calling it “close to what happened to (Louisville’s) Kevin Ware.” Ware fractured his tibia in a gruesome injury during an NCAA Tournament game in 2013.

Gunn snapped the ankle working out with two other players.

Surgery to repair his tibia lasted 4 1/2 hours. Doctors thought he would recover by spring, but Gunn returned for the final six games.

Sitting while his team was constantly losing games by double digits hurt.

“It was difficult,” Gunn said. “It was really a struggle to watch.”

LaPorte also has beaten Logansport, giving the Berries their only loss this season. The Slicers are balanced offensively, which makes them tough to guard.

Ott-Large is averaging 11.4 points. His brother Grant, a freshman forward, is averaging 10.9 points. Jake Spence, a 6-2 guard, is averaging 11.2 points. Carson Crass, a 5-11 junior point guard, is averaging 5.8 assists.

Gunn is looking forward to the rest of the season.

“We are getting back in our groove,” he said. “I honestly feel like beating Logansport was our turning point and beating Chesterton was an exclamation point. We’re not done yet.”

Hall of Fame: Willie McCarter, a 1965 Roosevelt graduate, will be inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. McCarter helped the Panthers to a semistate title as a senior.

A 6-3 guard, McCarter also averaged 20.4 points as a senior at Drake and helped the Bulldogs to the NCAA Final Four. McCarter played three seasons in the NBA with the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Lakers.

Rankings: In Class A, Kouts is fifth, Morgan Township sixth and Washington Township 10th.

mhutton@post-trib.com

Twitter @MikeHuttonPT