Lake Park wills its way past Buffalo Grove

Lake Park's boys basketball team lived to play another day by refusing to die Wednesday night at Prospect.

Lake Park, the No. 11 seed in the Elk Grove sectional, held on to defeat the sixth-seeded Bison from Buffalo Grove 50-48. The Lancers will next face the regional host Knights at 7 p.m. Friday.

Sophomore Tom Trieb of Buffalo Grove took a last-second 3 that would have won it, but it rattled the rim and bounced out as the horn sounded.

"It wasn't the play that we wanted," said Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson, "but the players were able to get the ball to Tom for the shot."

Trieb led the Bison with 14 points and 10 rebounds and played a strong fourth quarter. Center Mac Camardo scored 10 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. Jack Vaselaney scored 9 points and Zach Fricke finished with 8 for the Bison, who closed out the season 16-11.

Lake Park (14-14) led most of the way before falling behind 48-45 with 2:15 left in the game.

The Bison had forged the lead on back to back baskets by Trieb.

With 2:02 left, Andrew Vega hit a 3 from just to the right of the key to tie the game at 48.

"That was a big shot for us," said Lake Park guard Garrett Fant, who scored 20 points and pulled down 8 rebounds. "If Andrew doesn't hit the shot, they could have scored again. We were able to clog the lane for the last few minutes to keep them from getting the ball inside."

"Defense is something we like to hang our hat on," said Lake Park coach Josh Virostko. "Buffalo Grove was a quality team that we played. We just found a way to win this game despite some deficiencies."

Jake Hianik hit the second of a 2-shot foul after he forced a turnover and was fouled with 1:29 left. Vega hit the second of a 2-shot foul with 27 seconds left for the game's final points.

But the final nine seconds were wild.

Buffalo Grove lost control of the ball out of bounds with 9.4 seconds left. On the ensuing in-bounds, the Lancers were whistled for a five-second call, giving the ball back to Buffalo Grove.

"There were two things that won the game for us," said Virostko. "We got some big stops in the first and half, and the 17 points scored by Daniel Spejcher in the first three quarters."

Spejcher was on fire early, scoring 10 points in the first quarter as it was tied at 13 when the quarter ended.

Spejcher, though, picked up his fourth foul with :45 left in the third quarter and never returned.

"That was my fault," said Virostko. "I was looking for a time to put him back in, in the fourth quarter, but it didn't happen."

"A lot of teams key on me some when Dan is hitting - that helped open things up," said Fant. "I told the others before the game that we needed others to step up and show us something."

"We didn't do well at the free throw line (10-for-18)," said Virostko. "We're going to have to hit those Friday when we play Prospect."

Buffalo Grove lost starting guard Demetri Lomnick to a head injury early in the first quarter.

"That was a big loss for us, losing a starting guard," said Peterson. "It was a hard way to finish his senior season."