Evanston 63, Prospect 56
Late in the first half, Prospect boys basketball coach John Camardella removed his sport coat, unbuttoned his cuffs and rolled up his sleeves.
In the second half, the Knights did the same thing and nearly pulled off a massive upset.
The surprise wasn't that Prospect had the ball with a chance to trim a 5-point Evanston lead with 90 seconds to play in Friday's Niles North Class 4A regional title game in Skokie.
Unfortunately for the No. 8 Knights, all that hard work failed to change the outcome of the contest, which top-seeded Evanston won 63-56.
Evanston advanced to its own sectional semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against No. 5 Loyola (20-9), which escaped St. Viator 67-64 in overtime.
"There's no real moral victory," Prospect's Jeff Heiden said. "We expected to be in the game and to hang with them and to have a shot to beat them."
What was stunning was that the Knights (17-11) were in that position considering the way they played in the first half. Down 16-3 at one point and 34-18 at halftime, Prospect needed all that "sleeves rolled up" kind of effort.
"We definitely let them take us out of our game," Prospect's Alex Toth said. "They did exactly what they wanted in the first half."
Heiden accounted for 11 of Prospect's 18 first-half points. The offense became more diversified in the second half, especially with Toth getting loose. The senior scored 16 of his 20 points in the second half and gave the Knights an inside presence to counter Heiden's outside shooting.
"They're a great team, but overall, I think we did a great job hanging with them," Toth said. "We started the second half the way we wanted to play."
Heiden kept scoring as well. He hit six 3-pointers and had a game-high 24 points.
"We knew that if we were going to get back in the game, we had to play the game we're used to playing and not worry about turnovers and mistakes and just hang loose," Heiden said.
The rally kicked into high gear late in the third quarter, when an 8-0 run brought Prospect to within 44-36. What happened next helped decide the contest.
Prospect had the ball to start the fourth quarter, and missed a 3 with its opening possession. Evanston worked upcourt quickly. Steve Rudnicki launched a 3-pointer and was fouled. The shot sailed through the basket and Rudnicki completed the 4-point play.
It took Prospect four minutes to return to an 8-point deficit. From that point, the Knights continued to surge and trailed 57-52 with 1:32 left after a pair of Toth free throws.
Evanston (26-3) turned over the ball -- but Prospect returned the favor, and the chance was gone.
"For all of us seniors and all 14 of us, we worked extremely hard this season," Toth said. "Our motto this season was 'Together.' All 14 of us stuck together and put together this season and put together this chance to win a regional championship."