Prospect has the edge on BG again
With a Mid-Suburban East win already under its belt over Buffalo Grove, Prospect's girls basketball team had a touch of confidence when playing the Bison for a second time at the Dundee-Crown Charger Classic on Monday.
Perhaps that's why the Knights hardly seemed fazed when they fell behind 16-6 early in the second quarter when sophomore Nell Boyd made a steal and layup for the Bison's 10-point advantage.
Instead the Knights slowly crept back into the game and then outplayed the Bison in the second half for a 46-38 triumph.
The Knights (13-2) will meet Johnsburg (9-5) in the fifth-place game of the 16-team tourney today at 5 p.m.
Buffalo Grove (4-10) will face Bartlett (6-6) at 3:30 p.m. today for seventh place.
"Coach just talked to us (when the Knights were trailing) and told us to bring up our intensity," said Knights junior forward Rachel Hunt, who led the winners with 13 points and 12 rebounds. "She told us that we were taller and that we had to start rebounding better and not giving them any second chances."
The Knights responded with an 8-0 run, kicked off by sophomore Sarah Hunt's (3 blocked shots) turnaround bank shot. Rachel followed with four straight free throws and Sarah Winans took a beautiful backhand no-look pass from Danielle Brucci on a fastbreak to convert a layup and close the gap to 16-14.
Kelly Mahoney's 3-pointer got the Bison (4-10) back on top 19-14, but Brucci hit another long distance shot late in the half and the Knights went into the break down only 23-21.
They took the lead for good when Rachel Hunt hit 2 more free throws and connected for a bank shot for a 29-25 lead with 37 seconds left in the third quarter.
Andrea DiPrima's 3-pointer closed the deficit to 29-28 to close out the third period, however, Prospect started the fourth quarter with a 11-0 run and never looked back.
Junior Lexi Glennon had two of the buckets for Prospect during the rally, one on a nifty backdoor play and the other on a running 8-footer in the lane.
"Lexi did a great job seeing the floor," said Knights coach Martha Kelly. "She did a great job on those two baskets in the fourth quarter. Katy Shaffer also stepped up big time off the bench. Even though it doesn't really show in the stats, she had a big field goal (second quarter) and free throw (fourth quarter)."
The Knights were trying to bounce back from their first loss in 12 games.
"We learned from Saturday (in a 52-43 loss to Mother McAuley) that we had to hustle back on defense," said Lexi Glennon. "And we had to play with the defensive intensity we knew we can. We knew they had good shooters so we had to limit them to one shot."
The Glennons, Sarah Winans and Brucci were able to cut through the Bison defense and get the ball to the post players.
"The main thing was they handled out pressure on defense and extended their lead," said Bison coach Pat Dudle. "They are strong on the boards and we were trying our best to compete with them there."
Heather Nisbet and Kaitlin Hillner led BG with 7 points. Boyd and Stacey Lialios added 6 while Andrea DiPrima and Mahoney chipped in 5.
"I thought Andrea DiPrima continued to play extremely well-rounded basketball," Dudle said. "
"It's frustrating," DiPrima said. "We were in it, and just let up. The last two games we played hard the whole 32 minutes and this time we didn't. We can't afford to do that."
Kelly didn't feel her club was ready at the outset for BG's press.
"Truthfully, I thought it was a carryover from the McAuley game on Saturday," she said. "But once we calmed down and relaxed, it (BG press) didn't give us fits the rest of the way. Once we realized they were double teaming us, we did a better job of passing out of it."