Lake Park too fast for Neuqua Valley
It was size versus speed on Friday night at Lake Park in Roselle.
Speed won, with Lake Park taking a boys basketball victory against Neuqua Valley 54-35.
"Neuqua has size and we couldn't compete with that. We had to speed them up," said Lancers coach Josh Virostko, whose team improved to 9-7 overall, 4-3 in the DuPage Valley Conference.
It was a fairly even first quarter with the Lancers leading Neuqua 15-11 after it with both teams displaying warm to hot shooting. The Wildcats (10-10, 3-5) were 4 of 10 and the Lancers 7 of 14.
The game's momentum changed in the second quarter in what turned out to be a permanent arrangement.
Lake Park senior Andrew Vega, who led all scorers with 17 points, opened the period with the first of his two 3-point baskets. That began a 7-0 run that was capped by Solomon Sangobowale and his bucket, which made it 25-11. With 2:42 remaining until halftime, Noah Herdman sank a 3-pointer for the Wildcats' first goal of the quarter.
Teammate Christian Oliveras hit a 3 of his own at the buzzer to pull Neuqua to within 12 at halftime.
"There were 12 turnovers in nine minutes. Game over. Lake Park played good defense," said Wildcats coach Todd Sutton.
Virostko stressed that increasing the game's tempo was especially crucial in the second quarter.
"If we had walked up the court and made one pass, they would have put up a wall," he said. "We had to make their size move. They were efficient in their sets (in the first quarter) and we took them out of their sets."
The Lancers' Garett Fant opened the third quarter with an easy layup. That sparked another scoring run by Lake Park, also 7-0 to put the home team up 37-18. A steal by Sangobowale went to Brady Olenek, who hit net, which capped the run.
With over five minutes left in the quarter, Fant was all by himself for another easy layup to put his team ahead by 20 points for the first time in the contest.
Neuqua's top highlight on offense came afterward, a 9-0 scoring spurt that pulled the Wildcats to within 11. Free throws by Oliveras, baskets by Nathan Scott and Herdman and a 3-pointer by Jonathan Tan helped fuel the run.
A 3-pointer by Fant and two free throws from Vega put the Lancers back up by 16 at quarter's end, and Lake Park didn't look back after that.
"Garett and Andrew have been consisted all season. Our supporting cast stepped up tonight," Virostko said.
He was especially pleased with the defense of Sangobowale.
"He disrupted everything. It really helps to have a guy like that," Virostko said.
Lake Park is back in action Saturday at Naperville Central. Neuqua returns to the court Tuesday at Metea Valley. Both games are at 7:30 p.m.