Glenbrook South able to hold off Prospect

Alex Toth cuts quite an imposing figure. At 6-feet-6 and 215 pounds, the Prospect senior is used to being the biggest guy on the court.

Then again, Toth had never played against Glenbrook South's Jack Cooley. The 6-9 Cooley dominated on both ends of the court as the Titans defeated Prospect 67-57 in the boys basketball Conference Challenge Classic at Loyola's Gentile Center.

"Jack Cooley is a ton," Knights coach John Camardella said. "He easily had a double-double. He dictates the whole tempo of the game."

Cooley finished with 30 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks to help snap Prospect's four-game winning streak.

"It's a tough job (to guard him)," said Toth after fouling out with 17 points. "He's a strong kid and he's got a lot of skill. We talked about him before the game, and the scouting reports said that he was really their go-to guy and their main threat."

The Knights didn't help themselves by again falling behind early. The Titans jumped out to a 12-0 lead and never trailed.

Prospect (10-9) battled back and trailed 27-22 at halftime. Toth worked hard on both ends of the court, and his jumper midway through the third period cut the Titans' lead to 34-33.

"(The slow start) makes it tougher on us, but for some reason we've done that a lot this year," Toth said. "But we always battle back. No one on our team is going to quit. We know that every game we play in we have a shot at winning it. We thought this was a winnable game and we did fight back, but we ran out of time."

A layup from Jason Leblebijian (10 points) cut the Knights' deficit to 2, but Glenbrook South responded with a 14-2 run to make it 52-38 with seven minutes left.

Jeff Heiden (11 points, 5 rebounds) hit a pair of long 3s in the fourth quarter, and Prospect hit 14 of 24 second-half shots. But the initial deficit was too much to overcome.

"I thought we passed the ball well in the second half," Camardella said. "Overall, I think we could have used a little bit better shot selection at the beginning of the game."

Kevin Reed added 14 points and a pair of steals for Prospect.