Roman's roll helps Prospect stop St. Viator

Last spring, Angela Roman was a track and field state qualifier in the shot put.

This winter, she sure knows to put her shots in the basket.

The Prospect senior forward was 12-for-13 from the floor while scoring a career-high 24 points as the Knights girls basketball team posted a 59-49 triumph over St. Viator at the Cahill Gymnasium on Tuesday night in Arlington Heights.

"They shredded us inside," said Lions coach Jason Raymond, who like Prospect coach Gabrielle Lovin is in his first year directing the varsity girls basketball team at his alma mater. "We weren't able to keep them out of the paint, and we left their big players open inside."

Roman took advantage the most, and credited her teammates.

"Our guards recognized if they drove inside, their defense would collapse and someone would be open," said Roman (6 rebounds), who was 8-of-9 from the floor (18 points) in a win over St. Charles East last week.

"That just happened to be me. Everyone finished and we had a really good game on offense."

Senior frontcourt mates Brenda Kendziera (9 points, 2 assists) and Clare O'Carroll (team-high 10 rebounds, 8 points) were also key inside presences.

Leading scorers in the Knights' backcourt were Angelina Villasin (7 points, 2 assists), Nikki Matters (6 points) and Emily Frasco, who took a nice pass from Kendziera and sank a 3-pointer on her only shot of the game to give Prospect a 51-42 lead with 4:06 left.

Moments earlier, a 3-pointer by Viator sophomore Olivia Solimene closed the deficit to 44-38.

"We cut it to 6 but couldn't sustain the momentum," Raymond said. "Right there is a microism of our season so far. But the girls are keeping their heads up and staying focused on getting better every game."

Roman's game was placing herself in the right spot under the basket where she hit layup after layup.

"Angela gets herself in good position," Lovin said. "We make sure she isn't too far under the basket. If she can take control of the basketball, and able to merge her power to finesse, she will do real well."

A 3-pointer by sophomore Myia Clark at the third-quarter buzzer got Viator (4-7) to within 40-33.

Roman scored Prospect's first three buckets in the final quarter and ended up with 10 of her 24 in the final quarter.

Lovin also got baskets O'Carroll, Kendziera, Frasco and Maggie Determann in the final 4:30 of the game.

"Not a lot of our girls had an opportunity to play major roles last season," Lovin said. "So it's nice to see these kids all come together so well. We have a lot of multisport athletes, and I love that.

"I think the shot put has helped Angela (Roman). She needs a low center of gravity for that and I think she transfers that to basketball."

Lovin liked her team's ball moment throughout the game.

"That opened up things at the bottom," she said. "We did a great job of driving and opening up things for Angela, who had a great game. She was strong, communicated and finished. I couldn't be more proud of everyone."

Prospect had dropped five of its last six games.

"We were kind of in a slump," Roman said. "And we felt this was the game that could pull us back up. We are getting our energy back up."

"We started focusing in the second half of our last game (at Glenbrook South) when we cut a 20-point deficit to 5," Lovin added. "We wanted to make sure we stayed in control of the basketball and we carried that second half to this game."

Haley Robinson's scoring helped carry St. Viator's offense at the start of the second period. The sophomore forward scored the Lions' first 6 points, two on putbacks, and the game was tied at 18-18 with 4:19 left in the half.

But Prospect (6-6) closed the half with a 9-2 run to lead 27-20 at intermission.

Robinson finished with a team-high 14 points followed by Clark (11), Solimene (8) and Maggie Leazer (6).

"I thought our effort from the first through fourth quarter was great," Raymond said. "But with the type of team we are right now, we are very inconsistent. We have too many bad stretches. Great teams eliminate the bad minutes, and right now we are not doing that."