Drufke, Lake Park survive in OT at Conant

Lake Park's Matt Drufke was the key player in Saturday night's nonconference win at Conant.

Drufke, a 6-foot senior guard, came up big in the Lancers' 47-45 overtime win over the Cougars (12-7).

"Drufke really picked us up in the fourth quarter and the overtime period," said Lake Park coach Josh Virostko. "I challenge him a lot in practice because I have known him for years. Tonight his hard work paid off."

"I love playing this game," said Drufke. "When the game gets tight I like to be competitive. My competition level rises."

Conant looked like it was going to pull away after building a 36-25 lead with 3:17 left in the third quarter.

But Lake Park's Dominique Spencer (11 points, 8 rebounds) hit a pair of free throws, Zachary Cooper made 1 free throw and Drufke put back his own missed shot as the period came to an end with the Lancers trailing 36-30.

Drufke scored 6 of his team-high 16 points in the final quarter, including a basket with 1:01 left to tie the game at 43-43 before overtime.

Conant had two chances to win the game in regulation but missed on both attempts.

Drufke's basket in the overtime gave the Lancers (10-9) a 45-43 lead but Conant's Garett Gatz (20 points, 5 rebounds) countered to tie the score with 2:23 left in overtime.

With 2:15 left, Drufke found Zachary Cooper with a pinpoint pass under the basket for the score and a 47-45 lead.

Christian Soto's shot to tie bounced off the rim with Cooper snaring the miss as time expired.

"We take pride in our defense," said Drufke. "We feed off of that. When our defense is good, our offense comes through. Tonight I felt the opportunities were there and I took advantage of them. When we were down, we tightened up the defense and our energy level started rising."

"Last night in our loss to St. Charles North (54-35) we didn't make many plays," said Virostko. "Tonight we knew we would have to grind it out with them."

"I thought we executed pretty well," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "But puting the ball in the basket eluded us. We thought we had the game in hand but we let it slip away."

Conant shot 37 percent from the field (16 of 43)but just 3 of 15 in the fourth quarter and overtime.

Taylor Peterson scored 10 points, had 5 rebounds and 2 blocks for the Cougars.

The Lancers made 18 of 41 shots from the field (43 percent) and converted 7 of their last 13 shots.