Lake Park duo sinks Rolling Meadows

Lake Park had a nice combo going at the Fenton Thanksgiving Tournament on Wednesday.

Senior Danny Baylis and junior Matt Drufke provided Lake Park with a powerful 1-2 punch and senior Lucas Antioho delivered the knockout blow, leading the Lancers to a 63-40 victory over Rolling Meadows in Bensenville.

Lake Park (2-1) held a 17-12 advantage entering the second quarter but Rolling Meadows (1-2) narrowed the deficit to 20-19 with 5:42 remaining before halftime.

Drufke converted three consecutive turnovers by Meadows into six points igniting a 17-2 Lake Park run propelling the Lancers to a 37-24 halftime advantage.

"We were just trying to get into some passing lanes and force them to do things they didn't want to do," said Drufke who tied Baylis for scoring honor with 17 points apiece.

Rolling Meadows had 10 of its 17 turnovers in the first half helping the Lancers to a 13-point halftime advantage.

Antioho (10 points) grabbed a game high 11 rebounds, propelling Lake Park to a commanding 33-19 advantage on the boards as the Lancers increased its advantage to 50-31 entering the final quarter.

"He came out strong tonight," said Lake Park coach Cray Allen of Antioho's performance. "When he rebounds we'll be a pretty decent team."

Baylis was perfect from the free throw line, going 7-for-7 as the Lancers converted 14 of 16.

"We're moving in the right direction," said Drufke. "Every game we've made improvements. Tonight we put together a whole game."

Meadows seemed to be headed in that direction when Will Trunk (9 points) drained a 3-pointer with Ted Metzger (9 points) and Richie Kemph following with a pair of baskets to narrow the deficit to 1-point midway through the second quarter.

But turnovers and Lake Park's effort on the boards halted the Mustangs' attack.

"We turned the ball over way too much," said Meadows coach Kevin Katovich. "Then they killed us inside. We need to do a better job of boxing out. We didn't have an answer tonight."