Hahn, Lake Park stop Glenbard East
It surely gnawed at Alexis Hahn, confined to the bench for the entire second quarter of potentially her last high school basketball game.
She made up for lost time.
Lake Park’s senior scored 13 of her 20 points in the decisive third quarter and keyed a 15-0 run to start the second half of the No. 13 seed Lancers’ 58-44 win over No. 19 Glenbard East in Monday’s first-round game of the Class 4A Geneva regional.
Hahn went to the bench with 2 fouls and 4 points in the final seconds of the first quarter. Lake Park (10-17) no doubt felt the return of DuPage County’s leading scorer, who’s averaging over 17 points.
“I just needed to relieve myself of that ugly first half — I played so bad,” Hahn said. “I just came out with a vengeance and went right at them.”
Hahn followed a miss to start the third quarter, and next time down drained a 3 from the top of the key. Another Hahn 3 made it 32-19, and scores by Ashleigh Ricchio and Nicole Moore made it 36-19. Alyssa Hernandez also scored 3 points during the run.
Hernandez and Moore both finished with 13 points.
“We moved the ball around better and played more as a team rather than individuals,” said Hahn, whose versatility was showed by 11 rebounds and three 3-pointers. “That was nice to see.”
Lake Park hit 6 straight shots at one point. Lancers coach Andrea Miller concurred with Hahn that the girls worked much better as a team in the third quarter.
“We got a lot better shots,” Miller said. “That first half, we let their defense dictate what we did, taking it 1-on-3. We did a lot better job of keeping our composure. We just had to work together and be patient and do the little things.”
Glenbard East showed no quit, though, reflecting well the character of a team playing the last game of a 1-win season.
The Rams (1-26) fought tooth-and-nail in a back-and-forth first half, and even down 17 battled back with an 8-0 run led by senior guard Maggie Angst.
Angst scored 17 points, and Glenbard East battled to the end for first-year coach Jen Ennis.
“All I’ve asked of them all year is to play hard every game, and they did that,” Ennis said. “That’s who they are. One thing this group has never done is quit.”
Brighter days appear to be on the horizon for the Rams, with three sophomores and two freshmen among their top seven players. Sophomore Kelly Eberle scored 10 points, freshman Allison Hansen 6 and sophomore Elie Donovan 5 on Monday.
“We have a lot of work to do in the off-season, but we knew going in that we were going to struggle finishing games,” Ennis said. “We have very young players who learned how to play the game this year at a very high level. We’re just dripping with potential. As I look at my program this year we did a lot of good things.”
Lake Park’s future is the immediate, a date tonight with No. 2 seed and regional host Geneva.
“It’s going to be a hard one, but we’ll be ready for it,” Hahn said. “We need to be ready for it.”