Lake Park gets lesson and OT win at Waubonsie Valley
With a trio of three-year varsity performers sidelined, Lake Park basketball coach Josh Virostko knows there will be plenty of opportunities for his less-seasoned players to experience what he calls "on-the-job training."
The young Lancers checked off a few training tasks during the game, including overcoming a 10-point deficit after one quarter, shaking off the effects of a potentially demoralizing clutch shot by their opponents, executing like clockwork in overtime and, oh yeah, notching their first DuPage Valley Conference victory in a 42-38 extra-time win at Waubonsie Valley.
"We've got a bunch of young guys and this is on-the-job training for them, and at one point in the fourth quarter, I even said, win or lose, this is still a good lesson for them," Virostko said. "In the first quarter they were nervous, but we stuck with it."
Things couldn't have gone much worse for the Lancers (2-3, 1-0) in the first quarter - or much better for the Warriors (2-3, 0-1). Waubonsie held the Lancers scoreless for the first three-plus minutes of the game with Derrien Porter, Kyle Schroeder and Eric Cannon combining to lead the Warriors to a 7-0 lead. The advantage grew to 12-2 after eight minutes as Lake Park made only 1 of 8 shots in the period.
The tide turned quickly, though. The Lancers knocked down their first 7 shots of the second quarter to creep within 18-16 at halftime. Isaac Moore provided the spark for the Lancers with 6 points off the bench, with Thomas Zakic adding a pair of buckets. Moore finished with 10 points and 7 rebounds, with Zakic scoring a game-high 18 points, 14 in the second half.
"Tommy's got good offensive skills and he's starting to play within the offense; he's starting to learn in that respect," Virostko said. "Isaac just has to want it more. He's a beast, but he just has to learn to go after it and he got some big rebounds tonight."
The Lancers tied the game at 18, 22 and 25 in the third quarter before they finally took their first lead of the game 27-25 courtesy of a pair of John Pacione free throws with one second left in the third quarter. Lake Park built a pair of 5-point leads in the fourth quarter, the last at 35-30, before the Warriors fought back with Cannon, who had missed 7 of 8 shots through three quarters, scoring 11 points in the final period, including a coldblooded 3-pointer with 18 seconds left that tied the game at 38.
After winning the opening tip in overtime, the Lancers burned 2 minutes, 20 seconds off the clock before Max Ellenbecker made 1 of 2 free throws. With the Warriors unable to score in overtime, Zakic and Moore provided the final margin by combining to hit three free throws in the final 45 seconds.
A visibly frustrated Waubonsie coach Jason Mead did not mince words when assessing his team's performance:
"We did everything we were supposed to do in the first quarter, then didn't do anything we were supposed to do; we stopped playing hard and got into a ton of foul trouble," he said. "Nobody shot well, nobody played well, nobody rebounded well. There were no positives, we played about as bad as a basketball team can play."