Hynes, Lake Park turn it on against Prospect

When a couple of blown fuses left the Wheeling High School gymnasium 90 percent dark at the 5:02 mark of the third quarter, defending Wildcat Hardwood Classic champion Lake Park held a 38-24 lead over Prospect.

After a 10-minute delay, the Knights began a power surge of their own, rallying to within 51-45 with 3:32 left.

Thirty-five seconds later Lancers guard Dan Hynes turned out the lights on the Prospect comeback attempt.

Behind Hynes' second 3 of the game, Lake Park went on to a 62-49 win in the 38th annual tourney's opening round Monday morning.

The 5-foot-11 senior, who had 10 of his 11 points in the final quarter, almost missed arriving on time to his team's pregame walk-through due to oversleeping.

"I didn't have any breakfast," Hynes said afterward. "Almost forgot my jersey. I feel like the gods were with me today."

The basketball gods certainly were with Lake Park (5-3) in the second quarter as they pulled away from Prospect by using a 9-0 run. Hynes capped it by hitting 1 of 2 at the foul line at the halfway point of the period, giving the Lancers a 21-10 lead. A 10-3 spurt to start the second half gave Lake Park its biggest lead of the game when the fuses blew.

Prospect (5-5) twice got within 6 points (at 49-43 and 51-45) on a pair of steals that Antonio Gardner converted into layups for his only points of the game. But it turned out that just setting up Hynes' big 3.

"Sometimes when you play early you have to pump up your guys energy-wise," Lake Park coach Josh Virostko said. "I thought our guys at times were too passive. I want them to be more aggressive because I believe that when you're able to play that way you have a better chance of getting calls to go your way."

For Prospect coach John Camardella, whose squad faces Vernon Hills in the consolation bracket at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, losing control of the game early worked against his team's original game plan.

"When you're playing from behind you tend to go against what you wanted to do in the beginning," Camardella said. "But our kids never quit. We just got off to a tough start."

Lake Park next faces Niles North, a 73-38 winner over Vernon Hills, in a 3:45 p.m. Tuesday afternoon quarterfinal contest. The Lancers got a game-high 16 points from Garrett Fant, while Kenny Bogus and Hynes had 11.

David Swedura paced the Knights with 15 points and followed by Matt Szuba with 11.