Lake Park takes over in third quarter, wins big
Lake Park's girls basketball players just decided they'd had enough.
That's the best way to describe the third quarter of Monday's Class 4A Lake Park regional quarterfinal, a 55-30 Lancers victory against visiting West Chicago.
"At halftime we just knew that we just had to take over the game," Lake Park senior guard Emily Duckhorn said. "We didn't want them hanging around. We just wanted to take them out, and I feel like that's what we did. We just took over."
The Lancers, the sectional's 13th seed, led 18-14 at halftime. But No. 17 West Chicago's Bria Williams scored the first 5 points of the third quarter to give the Wildcats the lead a minute into the period.
They didn't get to enjoy it for very long.
"We just flipped the switch," Duckhorn said. "We knew what we needed to do, and we did it."
Lake Park (13-16) retook the lead the next trip downcourt on senior Maria Zepeda's 3-pointer, which turned out to be the start of a 24-point Lake Park run. Williams' free throw with 33.3 seconds to go in the quarter ended a drought of 6:27, making the score 42-20 going into the fourth. Duckhorn, who will play at Roosevelt University next season, scored 15 points in the period, hitting three 3-pointers.
"It was time for me to score," said Duckhorn, the Lancers' leading scorer this season. "It was. So I did what I had to do."
To West Chicago coach Kim Wallner, the key was the zone defense Lake Park employed in the second half.
"We left (Duckhorn) open. We knew she was their best player, and we left her open," Wallner said. "I thought Mae (Elizabeth Gimre) did a good job on her the first half, didn't leave her open very much. But she got left open in the second half in transition a little bit. Us taking quick shots, not transitioning off the zone offense, was a big difference in the game."
"We switched up the defense out of a timeout, and they got cold and we got hot," Lancers coach Brian Rupp added. "We had multiple girls hit 3s for us, and that got us into our flow and our rhythm. We weren't playing our style of basketball. We were trying, but nothing was working. I don't know if it was regional jitters or what, but that second half we kind of calmed down."
West Chicago (8-20) never got closer than 18 points again.
Gimre led West Chicago with 12 points, scoring 7 in a 9-0 first-quarter run that gave the Wildcats their first lead, 10-8.
Duckhorn finished with 19 points, and Erica Fant added 11. Jennifer Warfield came off the bench to score 9 points and grab 12 rebounds with 5 steals and 3 assists. Zepeda added 6 points and 8 rebounds.
The victory ended the Lancers' six-game losing streak dating back to Jan. 22.
"That was a big one for us," Duckhorn said of Monday's victory. "... This was a good win for us, but we've got more important things to do tomorrow."
The Lancers will meet second-seeded Geneva at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the regional semifinals.
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