Lake Park lights up Maine West
Unconscious.
That was the adjective in Lake Park's 64-24 boys basketball win over Maine West at Fremd in Palatine Saturday afternoon.
The contest was part of the Fourth Annual Camp Horseshoe shootout in which various schools in the Northwest and west suburbs take part. Camp Horseshoe is in Rhinelander, Wis., where the team's players participate as counselors during the summer and play in a summer league.
Lake Park improved to 18-9 and has now won three in a row and 7 of its last 8. The Lancers connected on a season-high 12 3-point baskets out of 18 attempts in the nonconference win.
"We shot lights out," said Lake Park coach Billy Pitcher. "Sometimes that happens in games. We didn't make many turnovers (2) and we got good looks at the basket. Maine West was pressing and trapping but we took care of the ball."
Junior Trevor Montiel led the first quarter Lancer attack by scoring 9 of his team-high 17 points. Montrell Perry, who would be second up in points with 14, tallied 5 points as Lake Park led 19-4 over the now 13-11 Warriors.
Luke Sgarbossa (12 points), another junior, hit 3 of his 4 3-pointers in the second quarter as Lake Park stretched the lead to 38-8 at the halftime break.
"When we as a team have a good game," said Montiel, "everyone on the team has a good game. Today was a good example of that and it started on the defensive end. We spread the court and used ball screens to get open. Someone would get open and we'd score. On defense we knew they could score and our defense never let up. This was a big boost to our confidence."
His team making 3-pointers was nothing new to Pitcher.
"Today we were fortunate to knock down a lot of those shots," said Pitcher. "We usually have four players who are capable of hitting those shots. This was a good game for us to play a up-tempo team like Maine West. Tuesday when we play Wheaton South we're looking at a game in the 30s. When tournament time comes you can be ready for different styles."
The Warriors took another 40-point loss this week at the hands of Downers Grove South on Tuesday.
"Today was on the heels after a nice win Friday night against Vernon Hills," said Maine West coach Tom Prokopij. "I could just feel the lack of energy in our warmups and it showed in the game. We had terrible defensive rotation which gave them good looks for wide open 3s. I don't know if we wanted to be here today."
Jacob Riedl scored 8 points off the bench for the Warriors in the fourth quarter. Danny Rice scored 7 points for Maine West, which will try to regroup at Wheeling Tuesday night.