Girls basketball: Frank ices Lake Park’s victory over Barrington

Frankly speaking, a girl named Maggie helped Lake Park secure its victory in its opening-round game at the 42nd annual Komaromy Classic at Dundee-Crown High School on Friday.

Maggie Frank converted 6-of-6 free throws in the game's final 1:02 to seal the deal for the Lancers in a hard-fought 36-28 win over Barrington.

Lake Park (12-1) advanced to Saturday's 3:30 p.m. quarterfinal to face Mundelein (10-2) in the tradition-rich 16-team tourney.

A putback by Ayla Allen (6 rebounds) and a driving layup by senior Simra Alam got Barrington (3-8) within 30-26 with 3:12 left.

The next points didn't come until Frank began her 6-of-6 streak at the free throw line.

"It's definitely stressful, but I guess but that's what the game is about ," said Frank, who has her options open to playing basketball in college where she plans to study nursing. "I just think it was one of those games where we were coming off a break and had to grind it out."

"We had to keep the ball out of her hands, that's our job, too" said Barrington hall of fame coach Babbi Barreiro , whose team will face South Elgin in the consolation bracket at 11 a.m. Saturday.

"Lake Park is a good team. I thought we had a couple of empty possessions when it was 30-26 when we had a chance to get them. We missed some easy ones but that was just part of it. As long as they are responding to the little things and trying to improve on them, we'll get there."

Lake Park coach Bobby Reibel’s team won their eighth straight in a game his team endured a 10:11 stretch without scoring a point.

"We told the girls Barringoin is obviously a top program," Reibel said. "They're well coached and disciplined so we just needed to come out and grind the game, and I thought we did that."

The game was tied at 8, 10 and 13 before Lake Park took the lead for good on two free throws by Isabella Aguinaga with 6:25 left in the second quarter. Allison Gogola followed with a 3-pointer at the four-minute mark for an 18-13 lead. A bank shot by Frank and a basket by Aguinaga made it 22-13 with 2:13 left until the break.

Barrington did not allow another point until Aguinaga hit a layup off an assist from Frank with eight seconds left in the third quarter to give the Lancers a 24-19 lead.

"Defense has kind of been our staple," Reibel said. " I think being able to defend while not scoring in that stretch allowed us to stay in that game."

At the start of the fourth quarter, the Lancers got a steal and layup by Caitlyn Mikes, two free throws from Frank and a steal and layup by Frank for a 30-22 lead with 6:20 left in the game.

"I think we just really got together at the beginning of fourth and started working more as a team," added Frank, who scored 10 of her team-high 17 points in the final period and also had 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. "Honestly, our patience offensively is what really got us to win the game. I think we were strong with the ball and that's something we've really worked hard on. And our defense was solid as always."

Frank's 79% free throw percentage is second on the team behind Allison Gogola (85%).

"Maggie has done a lot for us," Reibel said. "She pretty much always guards the top girl on the other team. And she has gone through stretches where can't miss shots. She started a little slow today but I think she worked through it and found big baskets and big shots."

"She and (Gogola, also a senior) are both very good free throw shooters. So with both of them having the ability to get to the free throw line is big for us."

Gogola (two 3-pointers for 6 points) and Aguinaga each finished 6 points while Tatum Kelly-Quintewro had 5, all in the first quarter.

Lily Richmond led the Fillies with 17 points. She also collected 4 rebounds.

"I thought Lily really did some nice things for us," Barreiro said. "And we did a lot of good things. We are having a little trouble sometimes converting offensively, especially in the second quarter outscored (12-3).

"I thought we did some good things defensively but right now we are missing some shots and free throws which we should be making.

"We had such a bad showing against Prospect in our last game. We did a lot of soul searching after that. We asked the kids to do some things and we work on some things in practice and I think they responded well."

Mundelein 53, South Elgin 35: Casey Vyverman scored a game-high 25 points to help lead Mundelein to a 53-35 triumph over South Elgin in the first game of the four-day-16 team tourney. Vyverman also had 3 steals.

Grace Dunigan added 11 points and Anahya Castro had 9 for the Mustangs who raised their record to 10-2 while South Elgin dropped to 7-7. The Storm (7-7) was led by Hope Nelons (12 points) and Kylie Germano Fin (5).