Wheaton North wins with chaos
Havoc, chaos ... whatever you want to call it, it worked.
And Wheaton North needed it.
The Falcons turned up the defensive pressure - a little earlier than they wanted - while rallying to Tuesday's 50-46 DuKane Conference victory over visiting Lake Park.
Trailing by 10 points heading to the fourth quarter, Wheaton North (14-8, 7-2) unleashed a press-and-trap defense that forced the Lancers (15-9, 4-5) out of their patient, effective offensive set. The Falcons scored the first 8 points of the quarter to pull within 2, then took the lead for good at 44-43 on Garrett Horner's third 3-pointer with just under two minutes to play.
"We were down but I knew we could come back in a matter of minutes because of the potential we have to score," Horner said. "We finally started getting some stops. We were pretty much trying to wreak havoc and trap wherever we could. We started getting steals and scoring, and the momentum built and built."
Wheaton North forced 6 fourth-quarter turnovers by Lake Park, which committed only 8 turnovers in the first three quarters combined.
The Lancers used a pair of 3-pointers by Luke Sgarbossa, who led all scorers with 21 points, and Joey Czaja to build a 38-26 advantage late in the third quarter. Just a few minutes later, though, the double-digit lead faded.
"We got away from our formula that built us that lead," said Lake Park coach Billy Pitcher. "We just got hurried up there and had too many turnovers. We got lazy with the ball and didn't help our teammates on traps. We got into some tough situations."
Lake Park controlled most of the game, building a 17-9 lead by early in the second quarter. The Falcons never allowed the gap to get too big, although turning up the defensive pressure eventually became a necessity.
Jacob Schauer led Wheaton North with 16 points while Deng Reng had 13 points and Horner 9 points. Max Ellenbecker scored 10 points and Trevor Montiel 8 points for Lake Park.
"We've got a veteran group that didn't give up," said Falcons coach Dave Brackmann. "They're so strong at running their offense, we had to start trapping and forcing the issue. We usually don't do that until later in the game, but we were not in a good position."
Twitter: @kevin_schmit