Drufke, Lake Park hold on to down Fenton
Lake Park coach Josh Virostko has been pushing senior guard Matt Drufke to be a leader on a relatively young team. Tuesday night against Fenton, Drufke took the proposal.
With the score tied early in the fourth quarter, Drufke let his leadership show. One possession it was an 18-foot jumper, the next it was a runner in the lane and the next possession it was a pull-up 15-footer, giving the Lancers a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the game as Lake Park held on for a 47-43 win.
"I was just looking to be aggressive," Drufke said. "The hoop was open and I got shots in rhythm. I was lucky I caught fire and I was able to help lead us to the win."
In all Drufke scored 10 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter, including 8 in a row at one point for the Lancers. But Virostko did have to call Drufke over and give him a wake-up call.
"He had a stretch where he had a couple bad fouls and he wasn't boxing his man out," Virostko said. "I called him over and asked what was going on. He responded very well after that. That is one thing I am looking for from his this season."
In the fourth quarter the Lancers did something they didn't do well in their season-opening loss to Libertyville: shoot free throws. In the fourth quarter Lake Park shot 9 of 10 from the free-throw line as Drufke was 4 of 4 and senior Greg Whetsel was 5 of 6.
"After the Libertyville loss we talked about how we need to be closers this season," Virostko said. "I had no clue we shot that high in crunch time, but that very well could have been the difference in the game."
The Bison got hurt early on as senior guard Emeka Umeadi got into early foul trouble and had to sit the final 11 minutes of the first half. Umeadi also picked up his third foul just two minutes into the second half and played sparingly until fouling out with 3 points and 2 rebounds.
Junior Daniel Montano picked up the scoring as he scored 12 of his game-high 16 points with Umeadi on the bench. But that wasn't the difference of the game, according to Fenton coach Dennis Cromer.
"Sure they made the free throws down the stretch that they needed to," he said. "But we missed a few layups that could have made the difference. If a few of those fell, it could be the other team celebrating a win tonight."