Lake Park holds Batavia to 23 in DuKane win

How great was the Lake Park defensive effort Friday night?

With 5:32 left in the second quarter, Jax Abalos of visiting Batavia hit a 3-pointer to give the Bulldogs a 17-12 lead.

Batavia wouldn't score again until 2:02 remained in the fourth quarter.

That's an almost unbelievable 19 minutes and 30 seconds of shutout basketball, and it led the Lancers to a 37-23 DuKane Conference win.

Lake Park ran off 23 unanswered points before the Bulldogs tallied again.

"The focus of our game plan is always defense," said Lake Park senior Matthew Geraci, who keyed the Lancers rally early in the third period.

"We knew Batavia was going to come in here and try to attack us right out of the gate," added Lancers senior Dennasio LaGioia. "We didn't let that happen."

Six-foot-3 Lake Park senior Camden Cerese scored a game-high 20 points.

"Everyone keys on Cam, and we know that," said Geraci. "At halftime we told ourselves that we had to come out hot, move, and cut. And then, keep it going."

The Bulldogs were no slouches on the defensive end themselves in the first half. They allowed Lake Park to score only 1 point in the second stanza, and led at intermission 17-13.

"We were just standing around on offense in the first half," said Lancers 6-5 forward Tommy Rochford. "We weren't getting much movement."

Then came the third quarter, and everything changed for the home team.

First Geraci hit a 3, then a 10-foot jumper to give Lake Park its first lead at 18-17.

Cerese followed with 3 consecutive driving layups to put the Lancers up 24-17 with 3:45 left in the third.

"Lake Park played a heck of a second half," said Batavia coach Jim Nazos. "Hats off to them, they did a lot of good things.

"I think we've got to be a team that if we're not shooting well, we've got to do other things."

The Bulldogs were just 3-of-19 from 3-point range.

"We could have done a better job attacking, maybe working inside-out," added Nazos. "You're going to have nights like this where the shots don't fall, I get it, but we've got to take other opportunities."

Lake Park took a 26-17 advantage into the final quarter, and Rochford opened the fourth by canning a long 3.

Batavia finally put points on the board again when Isaac Wit had an offensive rebound and putback late in the fourth.

The Bulldogs closed with a flurry, but the game was out of reach.

"We had a full week of practice since coming back from last week's Thanksgiving tourney," said Rochford. "We took that time to focus on defense in practice and I think that showed tonight."

Senior guard Nate Nazos led the way for Batavia with 7 points.

"Our focus tonight was on No. 10 (Nazos)," said Geraci. "He's their guy, and we know to key on him and keep him out of the lane."