Spencer, Lake Park down South Elgin

Dominique Spencer finished the game the way he started it.

The Lake Park senior sank all foue of his free throw attempts in the fourth quarter to help hold off a second-half South Elgin run. He went 3-for-4 from the free-throw line in the first quarter to give the host Lancers a lofty 17-7 lead by the end of the period.

Spencer’s efforts led a Lake Park effort that went 7 of 11 in the final period as it downed South Elgin 42-33 in an Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division boys basketball matchup in Roselle Wednesday night.

“In the first half, we were focused,” said Spencer, who finished with a team-high 15 points. “(In the third quarter) we hit a wall. But we’ve been there before. We had to push through it.”

The wall that Lake Park (15-5, 7-2) ran smack into was all of 5-foot- 7 South Elgin point guard Jake Maestranzi. The junior helped the Storm (9-11, 2-7) erupt for 14 third-quarter points and come within 35-33 with 4:39 left in the game.

Maestranzi scored 6 third-quarter points, including nailing a 3-pointer with 1 minute, 11 seconds left in the third quarter to cut the Lancers’ lead to 33-28.

He then connected on his second 3-pointer of the half to open the fourth quarter, making it a 33-31 game.

“We came out with a lot better energy and better defense in the second half,” said Maestranzi, who led all players with 16 points. “We just didn’t execute. We weren’t talking on defense.”

Spencer had the task of guarding the speedy Maestranzi in the second half, which proved tough. The 6-4 Spencer had the height advantage, but got winded after chasing the smaller Maestranzi around the court in the second half.

“Guarding Jake is not an easy task,” Lake Park coach Josh Virostko said. “(Spencer) hit a wall in the third quarter. He’s so quick.”

When Lake Park took Maestranzi’s shot away, he was able to find Ryan Lundy for a bucket to make it a 35-33 game with 4:29 left to play. But South Elgin would not score again, missing its final 3 shots. After Lundy’s make the Storm would go the final 3:27 without scoring.

South Elgin finished scoring just 5 fourth-quarter points, after going 6 for 10 in the third quarter.

“As bad as we played in the first half, with 2:01 to go in the game we were only down two points,” Storm coach Chaz Taft said. “We didn’t play South Elgin basketball in the first half. We didn’t attack.”