Lake Park 61, Streamwood 47

Finally, a knockout punch connected for the Lake Park boys basketball team.

The Lancers have struggled to hold onto late leads this season and it appeared like that might happen again Friday night against Streamwood.

Lake Park saw an 18-point lead slip to 9 before regaining control to beat the Sabres, 61-47, in Streamwood.

"We haven't been able to finish teams off," Lake Park junior Lucas Antioho said. "We showed that today and put a team away."

The Lancers (6-11, 1-3 Upstate Eight) grabbed a 9-point lead, 13-4, 6 minutes into the first quarter. Streamwood (3-13, 0-5) cut the deficit to 15-10 heading into the second quarter. But Lake Park scored the first 8 points of the second quarter, 6 coming from sophomore Matt Drufke, to take a 23-10 lead. The Lancers' advantage fell below double figures for only 45 seconds in the fourth quarter.

"To get out to the big lead just gave us confidence to keep going," said Antioho, who finished with 14 points and 9 rebounds. "We've been down earlier in the season. It just helped out a lot."

Drufke, who scored a game-high 17 points, scored 5 points in a minute span early in the second half to give Lake Park an 18-point lead, 39-21.

The Sabres started chipping away at the deficit. A 3-pointer from Tem Eskiel with 5:15 remaining made it an 11-point game, 48-37. Brian Brauer's 3-pointer from the left corner with 1:45 left cut the deficit to 9, 54-45. Forty-five seconds later Drufke hit a pair of free throws to increase the lead back into double figures.

"We've been in a lot of ballgames. We've just had a hard time finishing ballgames," Lake Park coach Cray Allen said. "We had a halftime lead of 13 (32-19) and I told the kids we need to come out and make sure we don't have anything less than a 13-point win. We had a 14-point win. I'm pretty happy with it."

The Sabres went 6-for-30 (20 percent) from the field in the first half and 16-for-56 (29 percent) for the game. Esikel scored 14 points to lead Streamwood, but shot 4-for-23. Brauer added 9 points, all in the second half. Kyle Holder had 8 points and 8 rebounds.

"We've got to learn to get over the hump," Sabres coach Tim Jones said "We've got to learn to take care of the ball and get a lead and run our stuff like we're supposed to."