Lake Park earns DVC win vs. Metea Valley
A few more made free throws and there would have been a little less stress, but a win is a win.
Fresh off an impressive DuPage Valley Conference defeat of Naperville Central, Lake Park earned another league victory, holding off Metea Valley 57-51 Tuesday in Aurora by making just enough free throws. The Lancers made 24 of 42 free throws while evening their season mark at 10-10 and improving to 5-3 in the conference.
"They gave us plenty of opportunities, but we didn't shoot very well from the free-throw line," said Lake Park coach Brian Rupp. "That could have changed the game a little bit if we did that early on. But we found a way to win. That's kind of how we look at this game."
The Lancers led most of the night after Jennifer Warfield had three 3-pointers in the first quarter, including a buzzer-beating NBA-range shot that put the visitors on top 15-11 after one quarter. Warfield went on to score a game-high 22 points and Carson Vance and Jordan Bradley also reached double figures, but the Mustangs just wouldn't go away.
With Janiece Thomas tallying all 14 of her points in the second half and freshman forward Ashley Konkle finishing with 17 points and 16 rebounds, Metea Valley (6-11, 2-6) stayed close throughout.
A driving basket by Thomas midway through the third quarter cut the Lancers lead to 33-32. Thomas then tallied 10 points in the final quarter with an array of baskets that included a 3-pointer, a short turnaround jumper and a coast-to-coast drive after a rebound on the other end.
"We could never deliver the knockout blow that we wanted to," said Rupp, noting that the Mustangs' size was a handful. "But it's a road game in the middle of the week and we finally got it done, so that's kind of the way I look at it."
While a few missed free throws late kept things interesting, Vance did make good on 7 of 10 foul shots in the fourth quarter alone to help Lake Park come away with the win.
"It was a rough game. We had rough energy at times and we have to play more as a team," said Vance, a sophomore guard. "We need to focus more on our free throws, but we made enough of them late."
Metea Valley was without forward Brianna Hall, out with a sore knee, and then had four players foul out against the Lancers. But even so the young squad battled throughout.
"We're playing hard. We're just making some mistakes at crucial times and we turn the ball over at crucial times," Mustangs coach Cedric Williams said. "We're making runs but we're not finishing the run. The list goes on and on. We've just got to continue to push how to finish and how to continue to battle regardless of what the referee is calling. We've just to play our game."
Guard Cheyenne Krehl did her best to rally the Mustangs late with six of her 10 points in the fourth quarter, including a 3-pointer that pulled them to within 53-49 with less than a minute to play, but four Vance free throws sealed the game from there.
"On a bad shooting night we still made 24 free throws," Rupp said. "I like the five on the floor for us. We're a matchup problem for teams too. We've got a bunch of people that can spread the floor and shoot the 3 and we're really working on trying to get to the paint and attacking. Obviously, we did something right tonight to get to the line 42 times."