Maggie Frank knew heading into Wednesday it was going to be a big day for her.

Even before the game it would be, with the Lake Park senior being honored for surpassing the 1,000-point mark in her career back on Dec. 27.

So when it finally came time to play against St. Charles East, making two of 10 shots from the floor was not really on her bingo card.

“After the first half I was just extremely frustrated with myself,” Frank said. “I was getting down, but then I just thought to myself that I was the only one that could change what I was doing. I’m a good shooter, so I just had to focus on the next one.”

Come the second half, Frank proved why she deserved to join the prestigious club of shooters.

The senior went perfect in the second half, scoring 18 of her team-high 23 points in the stretch to help the Lancers take down the Saints 42-29 in a battle of undefeated teams in DuKane Conference play.

“She knew that she hadn’t been shooting as well as she could in the first half, and she just came out and had a great second half,” Lancers coach Bob Reiber said. “We give her a lot of credit. She shoots it the way we need her to and defends the top girls of other teams, and helped us do what we needed to here.”

The two programs were locked in a dead-heat throughout the majority of the contest, with the Lancers holding just a 28-27 lead over the Saints with just 3:35 remaining in the contest.

That margin would not last for long, as a layup from junior Caitlyn Mikes and a 3-pointer from Frank would jumpstart a 14-2 run to finish the game for the Lancers (15-2 overall, 5-0 DuKane).

“As the game went, we just talked about winning shorter and shorter of portions,” Reiber said. “We went from winning a game to winning a half to winning a quarter. East came out of the fourth quarter with a lot of intensity, and we responded well and in the way we needed to to make those plays.”

Even while Frank struggled to find the scoreboard, the Lancers’ defense and nine first-half points from senior Allie Gogola, who finished with 11, helped them enter the locker room with a 17-15 lead.

“We were just really locked in on what we wanted them to do from the start and then letting our offense come after that,” Frank said. “We just focused on what we needed to do and that worked really well for the team.”

The loss for the Saints (9-6, 4-1) bought an end to an 18-game winning streak the team had in conference play dating back to to the 2023-24 season. But even with the unfavorable result, Saints coach Katie Claussner said that it was one that she thought was necessary for the young team.

“We’ve just got to look in the mirror and learn from our mistakes,” Claussner said. “It’s our first loss in conference play in over a year. Not that I ever want a loss on my books, but this is definitely going to fuel us in the long run.”

Sophomore Brooklyn Schilb, who suffered her first conference loss in the game, finished with 16 points in the effort, which included a floater with four minutes to bring the Saints within a point of the lead. Her sister, senior Addie Schilb, had the Saints’ other 13 points before fouling out later in the final stanza.

“The end score isn’t indicative of our fight in this game, but at the end of the day we just didn’t execute,” Claussner said. “We let their intensity push us out of our comfort zone. We’re going to learn from this, and I think it’s going to be a turning point for them.”