Lake Park stands tall against Libertyville
Lake Park had no fear going into the land of the giants Tuesday in the quarterfinals of the 37th annual Wheeling Hardwood Classic.
The Lancers do not have a starter over 6-foot-2. But Lake Park still managed to end up nearly eye to eye with a much taller Libertyville team, whose front line features a 6-foot-10 center and a pair of 6-6 forwards, and came away with an impressive 55-40 victory.
"We told our guys if that want to be proven as a quality team, we would have to beat really big teams" said Lake Park coach Josh Virostko, whose squad improved to 13-2 on the season. "This is the biggest team I have seen in a while. I thought we really took the challenge and did not back down."
Libertyville (5-5) used that size advantage to take 21-19 lead at the half. But just before the teams reached the midway point, Lake Park attacked the offensive basket for over a minute. The Lancers did not score, but came away with a couple of offensive rebounds, foreshadowing what was to come in the second half.
"We couldn't hit in the first half," said Cameron Van Aswegen about his team's 6-for-23 overall shooting, which inlcuded 1-of-10 outside the arc. "But we made some adjustments. We were just trying force them back to middle and get some turnovers. And on the offensive end, we started moving the ball and connecting in some open shots."
The Lancers trailed 26-24 with 5:57 left in the third quarter when the strategy came to fruition. Lake Park forced 5 turnovers while closing out the quarter on a 14-3 run with Van Aswegen hitting a pair of 3s and Stefan Meccia adding another as Lake Park led 38-29 at the end of the third quarter.
Libertyville, which found itself doubled on the blocks each time the Wildcats got the ball down low, scored the first 4 points to start the quarter and close to 38-34 with 6:14 to play.
"I thought our kids did a great job of rotating," Virostko said. "And then getting back out on the shooters."
The Lancers then drove the lane twice to put the game away.
Michael Karas scored on a sweet left-handed layup that he turned into a 3-point play. Marcus McDaniel, who is 5-10, followed on his team's next possession by parting the lane as he blasted his way for a layup and a 43-34 lead with 5:38 to play.
"We just hade to carve out and get inside," said McDaniel, who finished with 12 points. "I was trying to get their bigs in foul trouble and get some points inside."
Lake Park, which ended up with the rebounding edge of 24-21, never let Libertyville close than 7 points from there.
"We sped it up a little bit at the end," Virostko said. "First half, we did not make it a transition game - it was a half court game. Second half we got into the open court and good things happened."
Van Aswegen had 10 points for the Lancers while Karas and Meccia each had 7 points and Connor Vance added 6 points.
Joe Borcia led Libertyville with 10 points, 9 rebounds and 3 blocks. Paul Steinhaus had 8 points while Conor Peterson chipped in 7 points.
"I thought they purely outhustled us," Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil said. "I am thinking in my head how many loose balls and loose rebounds they got. We just got totally out of synch."