Lake Park doubles up on Elk Grove
A big reason Lake Park defeated Elk Grove in Monday night's Class 4A St. Charles East girls basketball regional opener could be found in the stat line of two Lancers.
"Two girls with double-doubles?" Lake Park coach Brian Rupp asked rhetorically. "That's probably why we won by as much as we did."
Lake Park, the 13th seed, ended 19th-seeded Elk Grove's season 66-47 as senior Emily Golab had 10 points and 12 rebounds and junior Daina Riser added 11 points and 10 rebounds.
"She can do that any night," Rupp said of Golab's production. "She's probably one of our best athletes. She's certainly very strong. She uses her body pretty well. And when she settles in, offense and defense, I think she can do that every night if she sets her mind to it."
Junior Cam James led the Lancers (11-16) with 17 points, and classmate Carson Vance added 16.
Elk Grove started well, taking a 20-16 lead after one quarter.
"We talked a lot this year about our focus and execution, and in the second half of the season we seemed to always get that quarter or half where we weren't able to keep that focus and execution in the second quarter, which hurt us," Elk Grove coach Jennifer Guth said. "It was a great first quarter, 20 points in the quarter, and we've been having a hard time putting the ball in the basket this year, so that was great. The second quarter we were sloppy with the ball, sloppy with decisions on offense."
The Lancers got into the flow of the game in the second quarter, outscoring the Grens 16-4 to take the lead for good. Elk Grove (4-24) came close in the third quarter, but Lake Park held firm.
"It was more of the defense," Golab said. "Coming together and focusing on just defend the paint because that's where they score most of their points. We were like, defend the paint, defend the paint and watch for the best shooter."
"We just kind of rode out the storm in the first quarter," Rupp added. "We knew that our defense would settle in and we didn't think they could do that for four quarters."
James scored 10 of her points in the first half to keep the Lancers in the game.
"She really stepped up today, and we're grateful for that," Golab said. "It's been up and down, but she's really stepped up this season, and we're proud of her for that."
Freshman Megan Murray and senior Jenny Banak led Elk Grove with 12 points.