Arnold leads Lancers in blowout

Samantha Arnold is playing confidently and assertively, and so are her Lake Park teammates.

That spelled trouble for Elk Grove on Thursday night.

Following Arnold's lead, Lake Park put on an offensive clinic during its 80-47 girls basketball romp over the host Grenadiers in the Elk Grove/Fenton/Lake Park Thanksgiving Tournament.

Arnold, a smooth 6-foot-4 junior forward, racked up 23 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks while playing less than three quarters.

"She's way more confident," Lake Park coach Lisa Smith said. "She's grown up. She's an all-around package. She's a leader and everyone follows."

"I know a lot of girls look up to me when I'm on the court," Arnold said. "I never wanted to be the person who always has the ball and everything, but I know coach Smith is always telling me I need to shoot when I'm open because it's going to hurt our team if I don't do that. That's what I try to do."

Sophomore guard Carly Willert and junior guard Adrienne Ryba tacked on 10 points apiece for Lake Park, which saw 10 players score.

Ball movement was the name of the game for the Lancers. They recorded assists on 26 of their 37 field goals while shooting 56 percent from the field.

"We were moving the ball really well," Smith said. "Everyone was unselfish."

Elk Grove held a 16-15 edge before Lake Park took off on a 10-0 run in the final 2:02 of the first quarter to pull ahead 25-16.

The Lancers led by as many as 15 in the second quarter before going into halftime with a 44-33 advantage.

Elk Grove did its best to keep up with Lake Park by shooting 70 percent from the field in the first half as it made 14 of its 20 shots from the field.

But the Grens negated their hot shooting by committing 21 turnovers in the first half and 35 for the game.

"We shot ourselves in the foot with silly turnovers," Elk Grove coach Jim Wills said. "We were able to break the press, I thought, pretty well, and then once we got across halfcourt, we were helter skelter at times."

The Lancers scored the first 6 points in the third quarter to expand their cushion to 50-33 on the way to outscoring Elk Grove 36-14 in the second half.

Sophomore center Ashley Capotosto posted team highs of 19 points and 7 rebounds for the Grens.

Lake Park is now 2-0 and Elk Grove 1-1 in the five-game round-robin tourney.

-- Dave Miller

West Aurora 60, Glenbard West 50:ŒWest Aurora coach Connie Siljendahl saw something from her squad that it struggled with all of last season.

Patience.

"We climbed a mountain in this game," Siljendahl said after her team's 60-50 win over Glenbard West in Glen Ellyn. "Most of our games last year were close games that we'd lose by 1 or 2 points."

"They look more mature this year. I'm proud of them. They pulled it off."

The Blackhawks (1-0) took a close game through three quarters and applied defensive pressure and offensive composure to it. The result was a fourth quarter that buried the Hilltoppers (0-2).

"They put some pressure on us and we didn't handle it well," said Hilltoppers coach Mike Hofland. "They were aggressive, and we panicked a little."

Glenbard West went on a 12-4 run and then outscored West Aurora 13-11 in the second quarter of a game that was tied 27-27 at halftime.

The Hilltoppers also fought back from a 19-4 deficit to Proviso East before losing 48-42 Tuesday.

"We've been working on breaking those kinds of presses," said Hilltoppers junior Kathryn Lux. "We're adjusting to that, and we're playing well as a team so far."

Glenbard West's Nicole Hazemi led all scorers with 17 points, and the Hilltoppers got 9 points apiece from Abigail Hastings and Lux, who also pulled down 6 rebounds.

"We'll get better. That's our goal," Hofland said. "We saw some good things today, and we'll improve."

-- Gary Larsen

Rosary 34, Glenbard North 30:ŒThere was a precipitous decline in production after the first quarter, but Rosary found a way to outlast Glenbard North.

Despite single-digit scoring in each of the last three quarters, the Royals won their second nonconference game of the week, exploiting the Panthers' turnovers down the stretch in Aurora.

"We knew it wasn't going to be a high-scoring game," said Rosary coach Dave Beebe. "It never is when we play these guys."

The Panthers (0-1) had a late surge to trail 17-12 after the opening quarter, and their prospects were further brightened by the shooting of Amoni Reynolds and the Royals' team-wide foul problems.

Reynolds led all scorers with 16 points.

"(Reynolds) is a very good shooter," said Glenbard North coach Mark Glenn.

The Panthers' Nicolette Rini brought Glenbard North within 29-28 two minutes into the fourth quarter, but miscues on the offensive end undermined the squad throughout the fourth quarter.

"Turnovers killed us last year, too," Glenn said. "We have to be able to handle the ball to initiate our offense."

-- Kevin McGavin

Fenton 54, Leyden 47:ŒThe Bison hit seven 3-pointers in Bensenville on their way to evening their record at 1-1 in the Elk Grove/Fenton/Lake Park Thanksgiving Tournament.

Samantha Rubright led the winners with 16 points, Tricia Chiamas scored 15 and Mia Sansone added 11.

Fenton held a 20-16 halftime advantage, then outscored Leyden 23-13 in the third quarter to move ahead 43-29.