WW South snaps Lake Park's win streak
Maybe it was a sense of urgency, or maybe a new offensive set saved for just the right moment.
Maybe the answer is much more simple.
"We just started hitting shots," said Wheaton Warrenville South boys basketball coach Mike Healy.
Doesn't get simpler than that.
The Tigers nearly doubled their scoring from the first 27 minutes in the fourth quarter of Saturday's 35-34 DuKane Conference victory over visiting Lake Park, snapping the Lancers' eight-game winning streak.
Owen Struebing's 3-pointer gave WW South (11-4, 3-2) the lead for good at 33-32 with 2:42 left in the game. Lake Park's Trevor Montiel just missed on his game-winning attempt under the basket as time expired.
"It was a sloppy game for everyone and we weren't hitting shots," Struebing said. "We just had to turn it on. This was a tough team on an eight-game winning streak, so to me this was one of our biggest games of the year. They're tough, but we just pulled through."
Lake Park (11-5, 2-3) looked in control when Luke Sgarbossa's 3-pointer increased a lead to 25-19 with just over five minutes to play. The Tigers suddenly came alive from the perimeter as Struebing and Jeff Kratz, who led all scorers with 16 points, both connected on a pair of 3s.
Max Ellenbecker scored for the Lancers to narrow the gap to 35-34 with 16 seconds left. After the Tigers missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 14.6 seconds left, Lake Park couldn't convert on its chance to extend its winning streak to nine.
"We really started to figure things out midway through the second quarter, but we knew we were giving them too many good looks," said Lancers coach Billy Pitcher. "I'm so pleased with so many areas and our effort. We just lost sight of a huge part of the game plan there with some of the looks they were getting."
Kratz opened the game with a 3-pointer and the Tigers led until midway through the third quarter when Joey Czaja's 3-pointer put the Lancers on top 18-16 in the midst of a 12-3 run. The Tigers scored 16 of their 35 points in the game's final five minutes.
Sgarbossa led Lake Park with 10 points while Czaja had 8 and Montrell Perry 7 points.
"We weren't very good with penetration and we weren't very good around the basket, but we feel like we have some capable shooters," Healy said. "We just kept telling them to shoot it, and Owen and Jeff knocked down some big shots for us."
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