Waubonsie Valley 52, Lake Park 50

Brittany Upshaw had one reaction when Waubonsie Valley coach Kris Kalivas gave her the assignment to guard Lake Park 6-foot-4 forward Samantha Arnold.

"I was very scared," Upshaw said.

At 5-7, Upshaw is 9 inches shorter than Arnold, the leading scorer in DuPage County.

But Upshaw rose to the occasion and helped put the Warriors in position to win with her spirited and physical defensive effort.

After watching Lake Park miss a shot under the basket at the buzzer, Waubonsie Valley won the battle of unbeaten girls basketball teams in the Upstate Eight Conference 52-50 Friday night in Roselle.

Upshaw held Arnold to 19 points, 3 below her average, on 6-of-21 shooting from the field.

"It was probably the hardest defense I've ever had to play," Upshaw said. "She's a really good player, so it was a very big challenge for me to step up to. I had a lot of teammates help me out on the back side, so that was good."

"I was very happy with how we defended Arnold," Kalivas said. "I know she scored (19) on us, but I thought Brittany did a phenomenal job on her."

For Waubonsie Valley (19-2, 7-0), a typical team effort produced its biggest victory of the year.

Rachel Bostick scored 13 and Danielle Brown added 12 for the Warriors.

With each team missing two players due to injury, they nevertheless took turns hitting big shots down the stretch. The lead exchanged hands seven times in the final four minutes.

Brown's driving basket gave Waubonsie Valley the lead for good at 51-50 with 36 seconds remaining. Teammate Anna Gault split a pair of free throws with 11.1 second to go to make it 52-50.

Lake Park (14-5, 4-1) gained one more possession and called a timeout with 3.4 seconds left. At just past midcourt, Arnold inbounded the ball but then was covered and didn't receive it back. Another pass gave the Lancers a final shot, but it missed.

"Obviously we had it designed to go back to Sam, but we also anticipated them not letting her touch the ball, so we had a second option," Lake Park coach Lisa Smith said. "We got a second option. We just didn't finish the shot."

Sarah Drozdowski provided the Lancers with a big lift off the bench in the second half, producing 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the field.

Waubonsie Valley and St. Charles North, the only other undefeated club in the UEC at 6-0, meet Feb. 1 in Aurora.