Darre pours in 27 points, Lake Park tops Rolling Meadows
Lake Park's Casey Darre called it a good sign that she made her first shot in Tuesday's girls basketball game against Rolling Meadows.
It turned out to be a bad sign for the Mustangs.
The senior guard scored a personal-high 27 points in a 56-48 win over the Mustangs in the Exam Jam at Lake Zurich.
Darre said she knew it could be a special performance after she hit a 3-pointer early in the nonconference game. Darre shot 7 for 14 from the field, including a sizzling 6 for 9 on 3s.
"It was awesome to hit my first shot," Darre said. "When I don't think, I shoot well. In the past games I've been shooting but not making my first shot, so as soon as I made my first one, I knew it was going to be a good night."
Lake Park junior guard Darrione Rogers, a DePaul recruit, finished with 16 points on 6-for-14 shooting to go with 9 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals for the Lancers (8-1).
But it was the 5-foot-5 Darre who stole the spotlight from her more heralded teammate. Darre did most of her damage in the first three quarters, hitting a personal-high six 3s. She made two 3s in the first, two in the second and three in the third.
"It's been a little bit since I shot like that," Darre said. "It was nice to get my shot back and show what I'm able to do. I know when teams double-team (Rogers), I'm a shooter and will be open. I've been working on my shooting and my form a lot lately. Rolling Meadows is a really good team, so this was a nice team."
Lake Park coach Brian Rupp said it was nice to see a breakout game by Darre, especially considering only five Lancers scored against the Mustangs. Lake Park also played without senior point guard Kate Kirkham (ankle injury).
"If we can get someone like Casey rolling, we are a better team," he said. "Every game since we played in the Thanksgiving tournament, Darrione is getting double- and triple-teamed. She's smart enough to find the open person, and Casey was rolling tonight and won the game for us. This win was huge, especially not having Darrione as our leading scorer."
Lily Greifenstein scored 15 points to lead the Mustangs (9-3). Susannah Holifield added 13 points and Alexa Davis scored 7. Davis also played a key role in holding Rogers under her season average, but the Mustangs couldn't recover from a late third-quarter spurt by the Lancers.
After Rogers scored a basket to give the Lancers a 38-36 lead late in the third, Darre canned a 3 and Carly Vehrs added a basket - all with Rogers on the bench - in a 7-0 run that raised the lead to 43-36.
"I thought our kids executed our game plan, but credit (Darre) because she knocked down big shots," Rolling Meadows coach Ryan Kirkorsky said. "Part of our game plan was to give open looks in the first half, but she hit big shots in the second half. That run (in the third) was a big. They had a lot of kids step up and made big plays."