McDaniel's late surge propels Lake Park
Lake Park boys basketball coach Josh Virostko sat Marcus McDaniel down for a brief chat late in the third quarter, with the Lancers trailing by 2 points to Palatine.
Virostko's short talk hit home for McDaniel, who scored 9 points in the fourth quarter to help rally Lake Park past Palatine 38-32 Wednesday at the Class 4A Barrington sectional.
Second-seeded Lake Park (24-6) will be seeking its first sectional title in school history at 7 p.m. Friday when it meets fifth-seeded St. Viator.
"I thought he kind of disappeared on offense," Virostko said of McDaniel. "He was doing a great job on defense, but we needed him to step it offensively."
McDaniel agreed with his coach's assessment.
"He said I wasn't impacting the game at all," said McDaniel, who finished with 15 points. "I wasn't looking for my opportunities on offense. When I finally squared up to the basket and looked, I saw that there were lanes all day."
With his team trailing 25-21 heading into the final quarter, McDaniel got the Lancers going. He helped spark a 7-0 run that lifted Lake Park to a 28-25 lead with 4:29 to play.
"We are the ultimate grinding team," Virostko said. "We tried to take away their open court, and I think we did a good job of that. And from there it just came down to making plays."
Palatine, which won a school-record 23 games this season, struggled on the offensive end all night. It was especially apparent early in the fourth quarter, when the Pirates missed their first 5 shots to allow Lake Park to regain the lead.
"We had trouble scoring," Said Palatine coach Eric Millstone, whose team finished 23-9. "But that was a testament to them. They are a very good half-court team and they play so hard."
Palatine finally found its scoring touch when Jovone Stricker drained a 3 from the top of the key to tie the game at 28 with 2:28 to play.
McDaniel's driving basket put the Lancers up by a pair, but Palatine's Matt Ulrich answered by canning 2 free throws to tie the game at 30 with 1:56 left.
McDaniel again put the Lancers up by 2 when he nailed 2 free throws with a minute to play. After a timeout, Palatine ran an inbounds play under the basket and Michael Williams missed a short jumper right in front of the basket.
That play turned the tide for Lake Park, which hit its final 6 free throws to clinch the victory.
"Our defense kept us in it," Virostko said. "We then got some things to go for us and hit our free throws and those free throws were huge."
That free throw shooting was huge for the Lancers. Lake Park converted 11 of 12 from the line in the final quarter and 16 of 18 for the game.
"We shoot 50 every day before practice," said Conner Vance, who was a perfect 8-of-8 from the line and finished with 12 points. "And it finally paid off. We really needed them tonight."
Nothing seemed to pay off for either team in the first half when they combined to turn the ball over 21 times as Lake Park led 17-15 at the half.
Palatine was able to surge ahead in the third quarter, when the Pirates took care of the ball while forcing 5 Lake Park turnovers to lead 25-21.
But it was the poor shooting for the entire game that sank the Pirates. Palatine shot 24 percent (10-of-42) from the field. They were a respectable 5-of-14 from outside the arc, but hit just 5-of-28 shots from inside it.
"It stings right now," Millstone said. "But we will be forever indebted to this group of seniors."
Cameron Van Aswegen had 6 points and Stefan Meccia added 5 points for Lake Park, which did not convert a 3-point shot and saw just 4 players score.
Chris Macahon led Palatine with 8 points while Justin Chaney had 6 points and Williams finished with 5 points.