Cerese, Lake Park solve WW South in 2nd half
If it were up to Cam Cerese, he and his Lake Park teammates would always run up and down the floor and score lots of points quickly.
But opponents of the Lancers know better, so they often go out of their way to slow things down a bit. Visiting Wheaton Warrenville South came to town Friday night for a key DuKane Conference battle in Roselle and did their best to bottle up Cerese and Company, using a patient offense and solid zone defense to limit the points on both sides in the first half, which ended with Lake Park on top 16-11.
But the Tigers learned that you can only slow up Cerese and his team for so long, and when the night was over, Lake Park had a 46-26 victory to stay atop the conference standings as the team’s sharp-shooting senior guard finished with the same number of points as the visiting team tallied.
“In the first half we were just trying to get used to their zone. And they’re very slow in their offense…they hold the ball for two to three minutes so it was tough to get in a good rhythm,” said Cerese, whose 26 points came in a variety of fashions that included a trio of 3-pointers and numerous cuts to the rim. “But the second half we picked it up and pushed the ball a bit and that got us momentum.”
Lake Park (10-1, 5-0) opened the second half with baskets from Dennasio LaGioia and Thomas Rochford, and then Cerese added a pair of 3s as the hosts went up 28-16 after three quarters on their way to a 20-point win over the Tigers, who entered play 3-1 in the conference.
“It was a total team effort. We got the ball in the middle and Tom [Rochford] was making the right reads every time. It was a great team effort. I’m not a big fan of the zone because it slows it down. I like to play man on man, but we got the job done,” said Cerese.
Wheaton Warrenville South (6-4, 3-2) did its best to keep the game tight, but couldn’t get enough shots to fall, especially in the second half when the Lancers got rolling. The Tigers were led in scoring by Luca Carbonaro, who knocked down three 3s and finished with 12 points, but he missed valuable minutes with a bloody nose.
“Obviously our goal was to hang around and give ourselves a chance in the fourth quarter…we just wanted a couple shots to go down in the third quarter and keep us around,” explained Tigers assistant coach Matt Stellwagen, who ran the team on Friday in the absence of head coach Mike Healy. “It didn’t work that way…there’s extremely talented offensive players on their side. They made good shots and we had to scramble.”
Rochford scored all 8 of his points in the second half and also had a game-high 7 rebounds for the Lancers, while Zach Rogers scored 7 points for the Tigers, who will travel to Bloomington for the State Farm tournament over the holidays.
Lake Park coach Billy Pitcher credited the Tigers with a great effort, but also liked what he saw from his star.
“They’re just so tough. I have so much respect for them and their program and their system,” Pitcher said of WW South. “They’re playing hard. Their defense is so tough and they created some turnovers on us early. We just can’t simulate their defense in practice much as we try.”
But eventually the Cerese-led Lancers were able to do their thing.
“Once we were able to settle down and stop turning it over, we got some stops and were able to run and get some transition,” Pitcher added. “Guys like Cerese, he’s really good in the open floor like that. He can get it going. He can just score in so many ways.”