Arnold, Lancers have 'an off night'

Samantha Arnold has so spoiled Lake Park girls basketball fans for four years, that you assumed something must be wrong with her Saturday.

But not much went right for the Lancers.

Arnold was on the bench for long stretches of Lake Park's game with New Trier, a 65-42 Trevians win at the 19th annual McDonald's Classic at Willowbrook High School.

Arnold, who sat for a four-minute stretch in the first quarter and for the first 6:13 of the third, finished with 14 points, 8 in the fourth quarter.

"It was one of those blue moons that she had an off night," said Lancers coach Chris Fruehling, who said Arnold wasn't hurt. "She's an outstanding player. She'll rebound from this."

"We didn't come out as strong as we should have," Arnold said. "By the time we started playing hard, it was too late."

Arnold at her peak probably wouldn't have been enough.

New Trier (18-3) ran out to a 17-6 lead after a quarter. The Trevians' quickness lived up to Lake Park's worries, as a sagging man-to-man defense swarmed on Arnold and New Trier had several run-outs for easy baskets in transition. The lead was 31-10 by halftime.

"We knew they loved to get in transition, they loved the open floor," Fruehling said. "We worked on it in practice. We just didn't execute it in the game and it cost us."

Trevians freshman guard Maggie Lyon scored 8 of her 14 points in the first half. Lake Park, on the other hand, shot just 4 of 26 in the first half with 14 turnovers.

"The girls bought into the defensive game plan we had and executed it beautifully," New Trier coach Teri Rodgers said. "We had great help-side defense on Arnold, doing what we wanted them to do. We wanted to front her and bring somebody to help out. And we really wanted to push the ball up the court and get some easy baskets. We wanted to get a basket before Arnold could cause trouble defensively."

Maeve Campbell added 12 points for New Trier.

Devin Johnston did do yeoman work inside for Lake Park (14-5), bulling her way to 10 points and 9 rebounds. The Lancers now get five days to lick their wounds before traveling to Waubonsie Valley on Friday for a matchup of teams unbeaten in the Upstate Eight Conference.