St. Charles East's Vazquez shows good timing vs. Lake Park
Drew Vazquez had 1 point in 31 minutes. So what. He produced when needed.
Trailing Lake Park by a point, the senior guard drove the lane for an acrobatic runner to put St. Charles East up for good.
Vazquez then rebounded a shot blocked by teammate Zack Burns and made 2 free throws to cap the Saints' 45-42 Upstate Eight Conference win in Roselle on Saturday.
"I didn't have my best game up until that point, but coach called my number and I was able to take it to the hoop and finish strong. It was nice to come up big for the team there," Vazquez said.
Down 42-41 with 31.6 seconds left after two straight baskets by Lake Park senior guard Matt Drufke, Saints coach Brian Clodi plotted the winning play - "Blue Clear."
"In the timeout we said, 'Drew, you're making the play, you're going to do this for this team. This team needs you to do it.' Obviously, he believed it and we believed in him," said Clodi, whose Saints (11-10, 3-4) rose above .500 the first time this season.
Lake Park (11-10, 3-4) sought a three-game cushion for the first time, this season or last. It couldn't capitalize on a 17-8 first-quarter lead, though Adam Hansen nearly created overtime on a 3-point try through a maze of hands.
Finishing has been a problem for the Lancers, acknowledged coach Josh Virostko - who got 13 points from Drufke, 12 points from sophomore Dominique Spencer and 7 from physical senior Antonio Pietanza.
"We don't score enough points, they're going to hit a couple 3s late and we run out of time," Virostko said. "Not that they stole it because we were better than them, because they took advantage of the opportunity."
Along with point guard Charlie Fisher, St. Charles East was lifted by reserves Bryce Barry, Derek Weber and particularly freshman Kendall Stephens, 5 of 9 from 3-point range for a team-high 15 points.
Fisher, who scored 12, banked home a 3 as the third-quarter horn sounded, Lake Park still up 33-31.
Stephens gave the Saints their first lead, 36-33, early in the fourth to cap a 17-7 run. Later, he sank his final 3 behind a right-wing screen for a 41-38 Saints lead with 1:44 left.
Making 8 of 15 shots from the arc as a team, St. Charles East won for the ninth time in 10 games.
"I'm very surprised at how we're playing because we started off just so slow. I was like, 'Man, we need the chemistry there,'" Stephens said.
"Once we started winning three out of four games, (then) four out of five games, our chemistry started picking up. We bonded as a group."