Prospect 68, Rolling Meadows 54
As far as Prospect's concerned, start the boys basketball postseason right now.
The Knights looked more than ready Friday night in their home finale at Jean Walker Field House in a 68-54 Mid-Suburban East win over Rolling Meadows.
They had everything going, from their inside game to their outside shooting to their defensive work to their rebounding, as well as a solid contribution from the bench, in a balanced effort that left them 8-2 in the division (16-9 overall) and with a piece of the title but no spot in the league title game.
Getting what first-year head coach John Camardella called a "level-headed" effort from senior center Alex Toth (career-high 32 points), which he specifically asked of him after a previous sporadic outing, the Knights grabbed the early lead and never surrendered it.
"I was 'lovingly' upset with (Toth)," after Tuesday's game against St. Viator, said Camardella. Meadows had no answer for the 6-foot-6 senior in his home finale.
"It was a great way to go out," he said, giving a "shout out" to Nick Carlson, the 6-5 backup who stayed after practice this week to work overtime with Toth.
And he had a "shout out" to sophomore point guard Joe LaTulip, who came off the bench for foul-plagued starter Pat Ziegenfuss and helped the Knights repel every rally with his ballhandling and ballhawking.
"Joe (LaTulip) did a great job," said Toth.
After an encouraging effort Tuesday against St. Viator, "He's been slowly getting better every game," Camardella said of his 5-10 sophomore, who scored 10 points.
When Meadows got within 39-35 in the third quarter, there was Toth scoring on a great feed from LaTulip and LaTulip on a great feed off a steal from Kevin Reed to squelch the rally.
And after Meadows' Kyle Gaedele (16 points) scored 5 points in five seconds in the fourth quarter, LaTulip found Jason Leblebijian (10 points) open for a 3 to make it a double-digit lead again.
"Just incredible passing," Camardella said of LaTulip. "He has great court vision. He knows the difference between looking at something and seeing something."
Meadows, meanwhile, lost its sixth straight (11-13, 4-6) and needs to get turned around by regional time.
"Our kids did a nice job battling back," said Meadows coach Kevin Katovich after its pressing defense helped cut the deficit on several occasions. "We were trying to get the tempo of the game up a little bit."
But even though Ty Kirk (15 points) had some inspirational circus shots and center Ben Sabal had 12 points working hard inside against the much-taller Reed and Toth, the Mustangs were out-rebounded 22-15 and committed crucial turnovers.