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Iacopetti, Lakes quickly back on target

Well, we know that Natalie Iacopetti's arms work.

The Lakes senior was hobbled by a leg injury Monday, the same injury that had kept her out of practice since last Thursday.

Normally a starter, Iacopetti wasn't in the starting lineup for Lakes' regional opener at Warren against Highland Park. The plan was to ease her in, play her in a limited capacity.

When she did get on the floor, Iacopetti proved that one leg and two arms was all she needed to get her shot to fall. She drained three 3-pointers in the second quarter to help No. 13 seed Lakes make up a deficit and break open a 9-point lead at halftime that eventually turned into 43-27 victory over No. 20 Highland Park.

The Eagles (17-14) will face No. 4 Warren at 6 p.m. on Wednesday back at Warren in regional semifinal action.

"During our North Chicago game last Wednesday, I went down on my leg and it hurt so bad," said Iacopetti, who paced a well-balanced Eagles' attack with 11 points and was icing her leg right after the game. "I was going in for a layup and came down on it wrong. I didn't practice Thursday or Friday or Saturday.

"Sometimes it was bothering me when I was out there tonight but you just try to play through it. The adrenaline helps."

Iacopetti gave Lakes a much-needed shot of adrenaline in the second quarter.

Lakes was down 16-11 but closed on a 14-0 run thanks in part to 3 straight 3s by Iacopetti to close the first half. Lakes took a 25-16 lead into the halftime locker room.

"She's hobbling through," Lakes coach Brian Phelan said of Iacopetti. "I was surprised she was able to shoot so well with air out of one of her tires. I know her leg hurts. But her 3s kind of just put the game away. And good for her. As a senior, you're not ready to go out."

Iacopetti got good support from a long line of teammates. Nine different players scored for Lakes, which also got 8 points from Isabella Quaranta and 7 points from sophomore Paule Ceneac.

"We haven't really had the singular go-to player this season," Phelan said. "Iacopetti has led us in scoring every game on average. But we've been a share-the-ball team this year, scoring by committee."

Highland Park, on the other hand, stuck to its starters for most of the game. The Giants, who close the season at 10-16 a year after winning just four games total, got a team-high 10 points from Sydney Ignoffo. Kirby Bartelstein added 8 points.

"They were running the floor with a lot of different players and our energy was not always good," Ignoffo said of Lakes' depth. "We weren't keeping up with them. We were tired really fast."

Lakes quickly extended its halftime lead to 19 points by opening the third quarter with a 10-0 run. Quaranta scored 6 of her 8 points during that run.

"We played well for 13 minutes (in the first half)," Highland Park coach Jolie Bechtel said. "After that, we just didn't compete in the second half. We weren't on the floor for loose balls, we were just kind of flat. Just going through the motions, kind of. That's hard to do in February."

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