Lake Park outlasts Neuqua Valley

Common basketball wisdom has it that it's not how you start a game, it's how you finish.

Lake Park turned that perception on its head Friday night at Neuqua Valley. The Lancers played a near-perfect opening four minutes in sprinting to a 12-2 lead, but they needed nearly every bit of that advantage to hold off a late Wildcats rally on the way to a 43-36 DuPage Valley Conference victory.

"We were only dressing 10 guys, four guys were out injured, and we were playing on the road, but we executed early and played with energy," said Lake Park coach Josh Virostko. "Then some of the guys started thinking, 'I'm not used to doing this.' Sometimes, ignorance is bliss - thankfully we had enough at the end to hold on."

Senior Diamante Smith, who has been injury-plagued throughout the season, set the pace early with 8 of the Lancers' 12 first-quarter points, while Daniel Spejcher, another senior who has been on and off the injured list, added a pair of buckets. But after opening a 10-point lead, the Lancers (5-11, 3-4) went more than six minutes without scoring.

However, the closest the Wildcats (5-14, 1-6) could get during that cold spell was 12-8 on Stephen Ruiz's free throw. With Isaac Moore providing a spark and 6 points off the bench, and Smith and Max Ellenbecker burying 3-pointers, the Lancers took a comfortable 26-13 lead into halftime.

"We had seven points at the half the last time we played, so that was definitely a sign of improvement from last game," said Wildcats coach Todd Sutton with tongue firmly in cheek.

But seriously folks: "I thought we just couldn't pass and catch the ball, we were throwing inbounds passes 4 feet over guys' heads," Sutton added. "We also forgot plays, where to be and what to do; you can't win if you do that."

The Wildcats made a mini-run in the third quarter, cutting a 28-13 deficit to 28-20 thanks to buckets from Ryan Lake and Dubem Ogbuefi and a 3-pointer by Noah Herdman, but Smith and Moore combined for 6 straight points to bump the advantage to 34-20. For the night Smith scored a game-high 17 points with 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals and assists, while Moore chipped in 12 points, 9 boards and 5 steals.

"Diamante showed his leadership qualities out there all night," Virostko said. "He was leading, controlling the ball, doing things that you don't see in the scorebook. Isaac has not touched his potential yet. When he learns to play with a high motor all the time he'll be close to unstoppable."

The Lancers appeared to have a fail-safe 39-29 lead with two minutes to play, but two missed free throws and 7 consecutive points from Herdman, capped by a 3-pointer with 41 seconds to play, pulled the Wildcats within 39-36. Smith then exhibited more of that senior leadership by converting four free throws in the final 34 seconds to ice the game.

"I like that we had heart in the second half, which we didn't have in the first half," Sutton said of his team's aborted comeback attempt. "That was just effort, our intensity was better."