Arnold's career-high 36 sink Streamwood
According to 6-foot-4 Lake Park girls basketball post player Samantha Arnold, Thursday night's contest at Streamwood High School was a must win Upstate Eight Conference game for the Lancers.
That being said, Arnold did everything in her power to help the team to victory. Her double-double, which included a career-high 36 points and 14 rebounds, led Lake Park to a 62-31 UEC win.
"It felt good helping the team and hitting that mark, but more than anything it was a big team win for us," Arnold said.
The two teams got off to a fairly even start exchanging baskets for the first four minutes of the play before Lake Park went on a 10-0 run to pull ahead 18-7 in the first quarter.
Scoring 17 of her 36 points in the first quarter, Arnold accounted for every point in the 10-0 run.
"We got off to a good start," said Streamwood coach George Rosner. "Arnold got hot, and we could not stop her. She is one of the best post players out there, and extremely difficult to defend.
"(Lake Park) did a very nice job of getting her open."
In addition to Arnold's efforts, Lake Park (16-6, 6-1) out-rebounded the Sabres 15-6 in the first half.
"Our rebounding was phenomenal tonight," said Lancers coach Lisa Smith. "I was very pleased with our overall team performance. A lot of girls got some good quality playing time."
Streamwood (3-19, 0-7) put forth its strongest effort in the third quarter rendering the Lancers scoreless for the first 5:30, while matching its first-half efforts on the boards with six.
"The third quarter was a great quarter for us," said Rosner. "We gave Melissa (Oehlerking) some help, and we were able to frustrate Lake Park a bit."
But the Lancers didn't stay down long concluding the third quarter on a 6-0 run which they extended to a 19-0 run as the fourth quarter got under way.
"We came out of the locker room a little flat, but bounced back and played a good fourth quarter," said Arnold.
Sarah Drozdowski came off the bench to contribute 8 points, 4 rebounds and a steal for Lake Park late, and Alyssa Stacy added 4 steals and 2 boards in the fourth quarter. Starters Marissa Pasquini (6 points, 2 rebounds), Lynsey Ciezki (5 points, 3 steals) and Chelsea Gieseke (6 rebounds, 2 steals) added to the Lancer attack.
"We had a lot of goals we wanted to attain tonight," said Smith. "Streamwood always steps up and plays us hard so I was pleased to see us reach a lot of those individual and team goals."
Streamwood's Krissy Kunavich went on a little tear of her own scoring 5 straight for the Sabres in the fourth quarter to add to her team-high 11 points on the night. Oehlerking recorded 3 points and 5 rebounds, while Arielle Gallione scored 7 Sabre points.
"Right now, we lack consistency," said Rosner. "We can play some really good basketball, but you have to sustain it; especially against a great team like Lake Park."