Lake Park falls short against Proviso West

Give Lake Park an incomplete grade for its girls basketball season opener.

The Lancers lost to Proviso West 56-51 Tuesday night at the Hoffman Estates Pilgrim Classic, but they had to play most of the game without freshman sensation Darrione Rogers. Rogers played the first 4 minutes, 40 seconds before an injured hamstring ended her night after 2 points, 4 rebounds and a steal.

The Lancers (0-1) adjusted quickly to Rogers' absence. Junior guard Carson Vance stepped up and scored 23 points, hitting five 3-pointers.

"I love to shoot," Vance said. "I practice every day. I'm in the gym every day shooting."

Dayna Riser added 10 points and 10 rebounds.

"Obviously, (Rogers) is our biggest scorer, so people had to step up and fill a role," Lake Park coach Brian Rupp said. "Carson filled a big role today, scored a bunch of points. Daina Riser, as a junior, first time starting, I thought she did a good job of being in a scoring role for us."

The Lancers fell behind 27-25 at halftime, trailing by as many as 6 points in the first half. They took a 31-30 lead on a pair of Sarah Ludwig free throws early in the third quarter and led by 4 points at one point, but the Panthers took the lead back. Proviso West held a 40-37 advantage after three quarters.

"We started off a little rough," Vance said of a 4-point first quarter. "We came back into it in the second quarter and started scoring."

The usual first-game mistakes proved costly for the Lancers down the stretch. They never could regain the lead.

"I kept telling our girls, if we could have won the smarts game, we would've won the game," Rupp said. "In crunchtime there was a lot of, just not smart going on. I don't know how to say it.

"Our shot selection was kind of poor at a stretch. Trying to put on pressure, there were trap opportunities and we had girls (missing) them. It's just one of those things where when we look back at the tape we'll see we had a lot of opportunities for us to push through and keep that lead."

Senior Tanesha Walker scored 20 to pace the Panthers (1-0).

The Lancers hope to get Rogers back soon.

"It's definitely a big loss," Vance said. "She's one of our big players."

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