Prospect’s defense contains Conant

Guard Ashley Wabik said her Prospect girls basketball team was given a challenge from coach Martha Kelly.

“She wanted the guards to get more rebounds,” said Wabik, a 5-foot-10 senior.

“We challenged the guards to step up on the boards,” Kelly confirmed.

In addition to reaching that goal, the Knights also seemed to challenge every shot taken by visiting Conant in Tuesday’s Mid-Suburban crossover.

Prospect held the Cougars without a 2-point basket for the final 25 minutes en route to a 46-20 triumph.

“I was surprised by that,” said Wabik who had 5 points and pulled down 5 rebounds. “We were focusing on closing out with two hands up and taking away their shots and drives.”

It worked superbly as senior Sarah Hunt (8 points) and junior Maura Benson both helped with 4 blocked shots for the Knights (9-7).

“We got flat-out beat in all phases of the game,” said Cougars coach Dan Travers, whose team’s only 2-point baskets came from Lindsay Fillingim and Jenna Heneghan in the game’s first seven minutes. “We had no answer their shot-blocking.

“Give Prospect all the credit in the world. They were patient when they had to be. They were physical with us. And they took us out of our offense.”

After Kelly Lomas (team-high 10 points) hit a 3-pointer to bring the Cougars (10-6) to within 16-14 with 3:50 left in the second quarter, the Knights (9-7) held the Cougars to 1 free throw until Lomas hit another 3-pointer with 1:35 left in the third quarter.

By then, the Knights enjoyed a 34-18 lead.

Senior forward Marissa Pettenuzzo had 2 of her game-high 10 points during the Knights’ 18-0 run.

“My dad (Ray) and I have a competition where he wants me to score 8 or more points,” Pettenuzzo said. “I’m trying to keep up with it. I think it’s working.

“Boxing out on both sides was the key. We were challenged to box out by our coach. We had been struggling with that so it was our focus.

“We played some state-caliber teams at Dundee-Crown and that has prepared us for our second half of conference season.”

“We ended well at Dundee-Crown and carried that momentum to this game,” Wabik added.

Sophomore Michele Molini contributed 6 points for Prospect including a big rebound layup which she converted into a 3-point play during the 18-0 run.

Kelly also received nice production from her bench as Jessica Petrovski, Christina Brucci and Jessica Shaffer all made it into the scoring column.

“I’ll be honest,” Kelly said. “Defensively, I thought the girls did a good job buying into our game plan. We wanted to key in on Alyssa Rawleigh with Sarah Winans defending and on Kelly Lomas with Ashley Wabik defending. We had everyone else helping out. I was very proud of the girls because they stepped up to each challenge we gave them.”