Lake Park edges St. Charles East in overtime
Lake Park's Trevor Montiel won't receive an assist on his team's final play, but his shooting touch in the second half played a big factor on Wednesday.
With the lane not clogged up due to Montiel on the perimeter, junior Luke Sgarbossa scored the game-winning basket on a driving layup with 3.3 seconds left to propel Lake Park to a 47-45 overtime victory over St. Charles East in DuKane Conference boys basketball play.
Sgarbossa scored the Lancers (21-10, 8-6) final four points, attacking the basket on a drive for the winning basket to avenge an earlier loss to the Saints.
"I kind of knew ahead that I was going to drive left because I faked the screen coming up right and crossed over left," Sgarbossa said. "It was a pretty poor shooting night for me, but my teammates trusted me with the ball in the end. It helped a lot with Trevor being hot today. It opened up the lane for me."
Montiel, a 6-foot-5 junior forward, led all scorers with 20 points, scoring 16 points after halftime. Sgarbossa, a junior guard, added 15 points, including 10 in the fourth quarter and four-minute overtime.
Mark Musial paced the Saints (17-13, 8-6) with 14 points and Cody Mitchell added 12.
Montiel made four 3s in a seven-possession span in the third quarter, hitting two from the top-of-key. His perimeter shooting helped draw Mitchell, a 6-7 shot-blocking force, away from the lane on the final play. The Saints missed a potential winning 3 at the buzzer.
"I usually don't shoot the ball that much, maybe one or two 3s a game," Montiel said. "But they were playing me really hard on the drive, so I knew that if I wanted to extend it, I had to shoot some 3s. My teammates trusted me and kept giving it to me. After I hit the first one, they told me while coming down on defense to shoot it every single time."
Senior guard Tom Zakic scored 6 points, but his defense on St. Charles's Nathan Ortiz played a big role in the win. Zakic missed two months with an injury, but Wednesday marked his second game back.
"I thought Tommy's defense was great," Lake Park coach Billy Pitcher said. "Tommy is so athletic and that added another dimension for us. I thought that made things a bit harder for them... . He's also so explosive."
The Saints wiped out a 5-point deficit in the fourth quarter with a 5-0 run that helped force overtime, but Sgarbossa scored 5 points in overtime.
"(Sgarbossa) and Montiel really did a great job offensively for them," St. Charles East coach Patrick Woods. "We were a bit sloppy early in the game and that came back and haunted us."