Lake Park clinches first outright conference title
Superstitious coach he is, Chris Fruehling waited until this week to give his girls the full dish of Lake Park's conference championship history.
Everyone can know now.
Lake Park, which had already clinched a share of the Upstate Eight title for the fourth time, wrapped up the school's first outright championship with a 52-35 win over Neuqua Valley on Friday night in Naperville.
"Two years ago we had a four-way tie," Lancers senior Devin Johnston said. "We wanted it all to ourselves this time."
Johnston scored 12 points in the first half that saw Lake Park (23-5, 10-0) bolt out to a 28-11 lead. Johnston was relentless on the glass, finishing with 16 points and 12 rebounds - 9 on the offensive end.
"She came out on a mission to get a double-double," Fruehling said. "I'm so proud of how hard she worked."
Jenna Aloia scored 11 points for Lake Park and Samantha Arnold had 14 points, 9 rebounds and 7 blocks. The Lancers' sticky defense held Neuqua Valley without a point for nearly the game's first six minutes. Another scoreless three minutes to start the second quarter and two Johnston stickbacks pushed the lead to 23-6.
"We went back to our matchup zone a little bit," Fruehling said, "and this past few days we've been working really hard on our defense. Going into tournament play, that's what we need to be concentrating on."
Special night as it was for Lake Park, so was it for Neuqua Valley for different reasons.
The school held Pink Out Night recognizing breast cancer awareness. The highlight came at halftime, where a check for $4,000 was presented to former Neuqua Valley star and current Purdue women's basketball player Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton. The check was made out to the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund, in honor of the former North Carolina State women's basketball coach who passed away from cancer last month.
"The community support, the administrative support, the team support is just unbelievable," Neuqua Valley coach Mike Williams said. "It speaks well of the kind of community we have."
On the court Neuqua Valley did rally from down 37-14 to score 11 straight points on 3-pointers by Danielle Davis, Morgan Williams and Danielle Carroll. But Lake Park answered with back-to-back 3-pointers by Aloia and Arnold.
Williams scored 11 points for Neuqua Valley (11-15, 4-6), which hosts a regional that includes Hinsdale Central next week.
"Our main focus has been the postseason," coach Williams said. "We haven't had this kind of atmosphere for a game. For our kids to come out in front of a crowd like this, really should give us some experience for regionals and we'll see what happens."