Girls basketball: Strong finish lifts DuKane-leading Lake Park over St. Charles North
Lake Park coach Bob Reibel usually doesn’t sleep much after games. He certainly felt that would be the case after Thursday’s DuKane Conference game against St. Charles North in Roselle.
It was hard to blame Reibel after the first-place Lancers barely escaped with a 36-34 win over the North Stars that kept their perfect conference record intact.
“We don’t take anything for granted in this conference,” Reibel said. “We’ve been beat up in this conference (for) years. So every time we have to play a conference opponent, we know it’s gonna be a battle.”
After taking a three-point lead into halftime, the Lancers (18-2, 7-0) were outscored, 12-5, in a third quarter that ended with a steal and layup at the buzzer by Brianna Buono, giving the North Stars (13-4, 5-2) a 30-26 lead.
Led by Allie Gogola scoring half of her game-high 14 points, Lake Park clamped down on defense in the fourth and finished the frame with a 10-4 scoring advantage.
“A lot of our defense is based off of one person going and then another person backing them up,” said Gogola, who finished one rebound short of a double-double. “And we just have trust in each other to do that.”
Trailing by one in the final minute, St. Charles North forced a 10-second violation and give itself a chance to win the game. Its best chance came when Riley Barber fired a 3-pointer in the left corner but missed.
Forced to foul, the North Stars put Gogola on the free-throw line, where she split two shots to increase the deficit to two with 1.4 seconds left.
Out of a timeout, the North Stars couldn’t inbound the ball cleanly from the length of the court but got another chance when the Lancers knocked it out of bounds. Taking the ball on the side, the North Stars’ second inbound attempt also failed, effectively deciding the outcome.
Maggie Frank knocked down three 3-pointers in the first half to contribute nine points for the Lancers. She also had four rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Rachelle Orrico got in foul trouble but had three of her seven points in the fourth to complete the tag team scoring effort with Gogola.
Caitlyn Mikes injured her ankle in the third quarter but returned for the fourth, earning praise from Reibel.
“Her willingness to come back, I think, was a big motivator and big for us just on the floor and what we were able to do,” said Reibel.
Bronwyn How paced St. Charles North with 10 points, eight rebounds and two steals. Lelanie Posada and Sydney Johnson had seven points each.
“When we found our footing in the third quarter, that was great,” North Stars coach Grant Oler said. “We played well defensively, and then, we just didn’t make all the right plays we needed to down the stretch, and that’s a bummer.”