Wilson sparks Lake Park
Lake Park desperately needed a spark, and K.J. Wilson delivered it from just beyond midcourt.
Trailing by 13 nearing the end of a miserable first quarter, Wilson's buzzer-beating 3-pointer started the Lancers toward a 57-54 Upstate Eight Valley boys basketball victory against visiting Waubonsie Valley on Friday night.
"The thing is, we needed something," Lancers coach Josh Virostko said of Wilson's swished midcourt shot. "You've seen enough high school basketball, if you start off flat you need something to get you going, whether it's a hard foul or an and-1 or a 3 or something like that. That's just something that woke us up, and luckily we were able to get hot, because usually a team like Waubonsie you can't come back on because they're that good."
Waubonsie Valley (6-2, 1-1) took a 15-2 lead in the first quarter, forcing 11 Lake Park turnovers along the way and temporarily alleviating coach Steve Weemer's fear of a letdown after Wednesday's win over rival Neuqua Valley.
"We came out well," Weemer said. "We talked about that because we had a huge emotional win Wednesday. It's a rivalry, and that's always a concern is how kids are going to respond after a game like that. I preached on it and preached on it and they came out and did well.
"What our guys don't understand and hopefully they will now is after this lesson learned is Lake Park didn't give up. They're a good team, and they're 7-1 for a reason."
"The first quarter wasn't real pretty. I tell you Waubonsie came out ready to roll, and we were on our heels," Virostko said.
The teams reversed their roles in the second quarter, which saw Lake Park (7-1, 3-0) go on a 17-0 run over about six minutes, taking its first lead of the game, 21-19, when Wilson stole the basketball and went in for a fastbreak layup.
"That was huge too," Virostko said.
Senior Dave Prentis keyed the Lake Park revival by hitting three 3-pointers. He finished with 15 points.
"They've been bumping me off all my cuts, so finally I started coming off shoulder to shoulder," Prentis said. "I had missed my first couple of shots against Neuqua, so today I just decided to shoot with no conscience. Miss one, just keep shooting, and it worked out pretty good."
The Lancers' momentum continued into the third quarter, hitting double digits with 6:50 to play when Spencer dropped in a pair of free throws for a 33-23 lead. Waubonsie Valley scored the next 7 points, however, and the Lancers' lead fluctuated between 3 and 7 points for the next 13 minutes.
"We would get the lead and then we would kind of sag off on defense, which we shouldn't have done," Prentis said. "As soon as picked the defense up we got the lead and we held it when it counted."
Dominique Spencer led Lake Park with 21 points. Wilson added 10 and 6 assists.
Jared Brownridge was the only Warrior in double figures with 24 points, adding 4 steals.