Glenbard East stuns Lake Park

Glenbard East needed a trip to the bank to extend its girls basketball season.

The Rams rallied from a double-digit deficit in the final minutes Tuesday night, defeating Lake Park 51-50 at the Class 4A Elk Grove regional semifinals when senior point guard Ashley Brown's 3-pointer from the top of the key banked in at the buzzer. The victory sets up a regional final at 7 p.m. Friday against Montini in a battle of Lombard schools.

"It was clutch time, so it was like, you had to," Brown said. "I looked at Brasia (Solid) because she's a really good shooter, but the (defender) went over there, so I said it's gotta be me. So I took that shot and it went in. I had to be confident in myself."

"It was a hard-fought game," added Rams coach Don Finnie. "Both teams played physical. The referees let us play physical. And it just so happens we hit a big 3 at the end. I mean we hit a couple of big 3s. Dana (Plotke) came in off the bench and hit a 3. And the second half we came out and played better defense than we did in the first half."

No. 9-seeded Lake Park (15-14) took the lead in the second quarter when a 15-0 run led to a 37-24 halftime advantage.

"We turned up our defense and made shots," Lake Park coach Brian Rupp said of the big second quarter. "We hit the correct shots and played our style of basketball."

The Lancers used free throws to keep the No. 8 Rams (19-10) at arm's length in the second half, when Lake Park converted just three field goals, none of them 3-pointers.

"We kept saying at halftime, we have to do this for us," Brown added. "We can't do it for anybody but us. Our girls basketball team from Glenbard East, it's been a long time since we've been to a regional championship. It would be nice to come out with a win."

Brown started the Rams comeback when she cut the Lancers' lead to single digits with 2:20 remaining, then hit a 3 with 1:46 to go to make the score 48-42. Plotke's 3 from the right wing with 56 seconds left was followed by Brasia Solid's 3 from the right wing that also banked in, cutting the margin to 1. Lake Park added a free throw with 12 seconds left, setting the stage for Brown's final 3.

"The seniors didn't want to not play another game," Finnie said. "They wanted to play on Friday. They came out with fire in their eyes. They had it in the locker room at halftime, and they really wanted to play hard the second half. We could see it the second half."

"They turned up their 'D' a little bit, we became a little passive and in the playoffs you have to have five people who want to make a play," Rupp said.

Glenbard East seniors Brittany Paganucci scored 12 points, and Solid had 11 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists.

Senior Jordan Bradley led the Lancers with 16 points, hitting four 3-pointers. Carson Vance added 10.

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