Lake Park dumps St. Charles North
Pressure defense and 3-pointers made.
That was the successful recipe Lake Park's girls basketball team used in opening the 2017-2018 season with a 47-37 win over St. Charles North in first round action of the Hoffman Estates Pilgrim Classic Thanskgiving Tournament Tuesday night.
Defensively, Lake Park (1-0) forced 31 North Star turnovers and St. Charles North was only able to convert on 10-of-40 from the floor for 25 percent and made only 1-of-10 from 3-point range.
"Their full court pressure was really tough," said St. Charles North coach Mike Tomczak. "We had a rough time running any type of offense. We just didn't execute in the half court. Their type of pressure is really tough to simulate in practice. We know what we have to work on in practice."
Lake Park coach Brian Rupp liked his team's defensive intensity for 32 minutes.
"We really got after it defensively from beginning to end," Rupp said. "They had trouble running any type of offense and were able to get some good shots on transition from our defense. We had them scrambling from the tip."
Offensively, the Lancers connected on 10-of-25 from beyond the arc for 40 percent.
Lake Park was 8-of-16 from 3-point range during the first 16 minutes.
Carson Vance, who collected 4 treys, led Lake Park with 20 points. Joining Vance in double digits was Kate Kirkham with 10 points including 2 treys. Daina Riser scored 6 points on a pair of 3s and Cam James and Kinsey Tweedy also collected trifectas for the winners.
"We want to get open shots and we want to shoot the 3 if it is there," said Rupp. "We have a lot of good shooters and our guards set the tone and they all can make the 3. Most of the 3s we took tonight were good shots. We didn't force many. I like our energy and it was a good first game effort."
The North Stars, who stayed within striking distance by making 16-of-22 from the free throw line for 72 percent, were led by Anna Davern with 13 points and Anna Tate (9). They had 13 rebounds each.
St. Charles North, which trailed 30-23 at half, scored the first 5 points of the second half but couldn't get any closer.
"We did a good job of staying in the game by getting to the free throw line," said Tomczak. "We got it to two but just couldn't get over the hump."