Loyola edges Prospect
There were plenty of chances for Loyola to crack under pressure in the last 10 minutes against Prospect on Tuesday night.
The Ramblers never did as they erased a 5-point lead in the last 1:42 of the third quarter and responded to four Prospect fourth-quarter leads.
And an 11-3 burst kept the Ramblers in line to win their fourth straight Wildcat Hardwood Classic title with a 59-57 quarterfinal victory in the 31st annual boys basketball tournament at Wheeling.
"The type of team we are we shouldn't let a team come back on us like that," said Prospect senior guard Jason Leblebijian after his team's 9-game winning streak was snapped.
"It was a tough game at both ends and they're so well-coached and have a lot of talent," said Loyola coach Bryan Tucker. "We executed at the right time and they couldn't get their shots to go."
Matt Sullivan (24 points, 7 rebounds), Rob Wennington (14 points, 6 rebounds) and Brian Kucera (10 points, 9 assists) scored all of the Ramblers' final 22 points.
Wennington, a 6-foot-8 junior and son of former Bulls' player and current radio announcer Bill Wennington, scored 10 fourth-quarter points. His short driving turnaround with 3:27 to play put Loyola (7-4) ahead to stay at 50-49 and on its way to a rematch of last year's title game with North Chicago (9-1), a 72-56 winner over Deerfield.
"It took him awhile to get in the flow of the game," Tucker said of Wennington missing his first 6 shots. "But he was playing against a really talented kid (6-7 Prospect senior Kevin Reed).
"We may have helped him set the record for most blocks in a game."
Reed only got halfway there with 5 of the 9 blocked shots by the Knights (9-1), who will play Deerfield (3-7) at 3:45 p.m. Friday. But Loyola never shied away from going inside and Sullivan's driving 3-point play made it 53-49 at 2:06.
Reed (11 points, 6 rebounds) got a 3-point play at 1:32 but fouled out 16 seconds later. Wennington hit 2 free throws and a layup in between a Prospect missed 3-pointer. After a turnover, Kucera hit 2 free throws to put Loyola up 59-52 with 27 seconds left.
"Once they got the 1-point lead, from then on they slowed it down and basically ran a play for layups and it worked," Leblebijian said. "We just tried forcing it and tried to get back in the game with 1 big shot.
"It's sort of an eye-opener. When you play better teams like that you've got to step up and take charge of the game."
Prospect went 6-for-24 on 3s and Joe LaTulip (15 points) hit his third with 15 seconds left. But it had no timeouts to stop the clock after Thomas Kelly scored inside with a second left to set the final score.
"We're revisiting consistency again," said Prospect coach John Camardella. "It seems like we make great strides and sort of revert.
"It's a good midseason lesson for any team that you can't get away from what you practice every day. We had that game and it got away from us."