Lake Park spreads around the scoring in rout of Elgin

Amazingly enough, Lake Park freshman forward Alyssa Hernandez has participated in a 59-point victory once before.

Here's guessing she didn't envision herself playing in another one just five games into her high school career.

Yet that's exactly where the 6-foot-1 Hernandez found herself Thursday night, contributing 8 points off the bench for the Lancers in a 76-17 drubbing of Elgin in Roselle.

By her own account Hernandez benefited from good fortune peppered in amongst a solid work ethic in playing the best game of her very young varsity tenure.

"I was trying really hard during practice, and I guess luck kind of went my way," Hernandez said. "Usually I don't finish, but today I was on my game."

So too were the rest of the Lancers (3-2, 2-1 Upstate Eight Conference), immediately establishing their presence by forcing eight consecutive Elgin (1-7, 1-1) turnovers and building a 14-0 advantage right out of the gates.

"It was one of our main goals," Lake Park forward Alexis Hahn said of forcing Elgin to turn the ball over. "It's important for me that I force my teammates and I to do those goals."

Lake Park easily turned its defensive efforts into scoring opportunities throughout the first half, shooting 56 percent from the floor while forcing 18 Maroons' turnovers.

Hahn - another Lake Park youngster - led the Lancers onslaught with 13 points, 4 steals and a pair of rebounds in the first half. The 5-10 sophomore forward notched a double-double for the night, leading all scorers with 18 points while grabbing 10 boards.

"My post-up moves I thought did really well," Hahn said. "The guards feeding it to me did really awesome tonight too."

"She has come along real nicely," Lancers coach Chris Fruehling said. "She's been playing really steadily for us, and it was good to see her really shine tonight, because she works hard at it.

"It's great to see her shots fall and then also be able to get those double-digit rebounds."

Elgin coach Nick Bumbales refused to let the scoreboard dictate his postgame evaluation, saying his girls executed certain aspects of the game very well despite the loss.

"I saw a lot of things that I thought we did well," Bumbales said. "We did a good job of defending their inbounds plays. I thought our post defense wasn't bad at certain times.

"The kids are out there battling, they're playing hard, but it's just not happening right now."