Lake Park falls in Wheeling semifinal

One play seemed to turn the tide against Lake Park.

With Niles North trailing Lake Park in the third quarter in the semifinals of the Wheeling Hardwood Classic, Vikings senior Abdel Nader took advantage of a steal, drove downcourt and took off from the free-throw line, flying through the air for an acrobatic dunk that brought Niles North to a 41-41 tie.

The slam electrified the crowd and led the Vikings on a 12-point run en route to a 59-56 victory.

"Lake Park is an oustanding team, and they didn't make it easy on us tonight," said Niles North coach Glenn Olson. "But I think the guys did a great job making decisions with the basketball, taking great shots and getting layups."

The 6-foot-6 Nader led the Vikings (8-4) with a game-high 27 points, while Lake Park (9-4) senior guard Eric Eichholz scored 20 points as the Lancers made a late run that got them to within a point with less than a minute left.

"Niles North came out with intensity in a man-to-man setting, and we weren't ready to handle it," said Lake Park coach Josh Virostko. "We'd won five in a row playing together as a team, but tonight everybody tried to do it individually."

After Nader's dunk evened things up, the Vikings held Lake Park scoreless for more than five minutes, taking a double-digit lead in the process.

Lake Park still trailed by 8 points with four minutes left but cut the advantage to 55-54 with 41 seconds left when senior Zack Cooper nailed two clutch free throws.

"I thought that in the second half we came out and executed our offense," Virostko said. "In the first half it was chaotic. We had to have over 30 turnovers tonight, and if you go by the theory that every turnover equals a point, if we had been able to cut those in half we'd have won."

After Niles North guard Sam Sharples hit a reverse layup with 20 seconds remaining, two free throws from Eichholz brought the Lancers back to within 1.

Then Nader was fouled and hit both foul shots in the double bonus to seal the win.

Lake Park junior Kevin Spejcher scored 11 points off the bench, while Niles North sophomore Malachi Nix added 7 points for the victors.

"We were up by 10," Olson said, "then we got a little complacement and confused. But we got better at shot selection and I thought our ball movement late was a big key."