Loyola limits Arnold's support

Loyola Academy knew there wasn't much it could do to stop Lake Park standout Sam Arnold. So the Ramblers focused on limiting the touches of the other Lancers players in Saturday's Suburban Holiday Showcase girls basketball tournament at Trinity High School in River Forest.

That strategy worked well. While Arnold poured in a game-high 32 points, the senior forward got little offensive support from her teammates as Loyola captured a 65-54 victory over Lake Park to improve its record to a stellar 10-1.

"Sam had a really good game and kept us in the game by herself offensively," said Lake Park coach Chris Fruehling. "I would've hoped other girls would have stepped up to have more balance out there, the way Loyola did. Unfortunately, we were unable to do that."

The Ramblers had four players hit double-digit scoring led by 19 points from forward Meghan Holy and 17 from guard Katie Faught. Guard Audrey Gaughan and forward Katherine Wheeler tallied 13 and 11 points, respectively.

"We like to make sure we have three or four girls in double figures," said Loyola coach Jeremy Schoenecker.

Loyola is proficient in scoring from the outside, moving the ball quickly around the perimeter to find the open shooter. Gaughan sank a pair of 3-pointers to help the Ramblers surge to a 8-0 lead in the first quarter. They are also very good at moving without the ball and scoring on the back door plays.

Lake Park (8-2) looked tentative on offense and missed some fairly easy shots early on. Arnold, though, did her best to match them, scoring 10 of the Lancers' 15 points in the first quarter.

The Rambers held a 22-15 advantage after the first eight minutes of play. Lake Park cut the deficit to 24-21 early in the second quarter on an inside bucket by Arnold. But Loyola then rolled off 9 unanswered points to go up by 14 points and never trailed by less than 10 points the rest of the way.

"We did have a slow start and never came back from it," Arnold said. "We made too many small mistakes. With a good team like Loyola, they are going to take advantage of that.

"They have a lot of guard play and a lot more pressure on defense. We haven't seen that type of pressure yet. In the first half we folded under it. We did a lot better in the second half, but it was too late. We have to learn from it - make smarter passes, make good decisions and come ready to play every game."

Speaking of coming ready to play, Fruehling was pleased with the play of Lake Park guards Tori Clark and Carly Willert, specifically how they looked to create offensively. Willert chipped in 8 points.