Prospect handles Elk Grove

With less than a minute gone in Friday night's game at Elk Grove, Prospect found itself two starters down.

Junior guard Joe LaTulip was already on the bench in street clothes, held out as a precaution with a knee problem.

Then 40 seconds in, 6-foot-2 forward Nsenzi Salasini was forced to bench after a hard shot to the face that drew blood - but the rest of the Knights banded together and stepped up.

Prospect junior Jack Redding scored a game-high 12 points and Thomas Kelly, Bobby Reibel and Kevin Matkovic came up with huge efforts in a 52-39 MSL East boys basketball win over the Grenadiers.

Elk Grove scored 18 points in the first quater but could manage only 21 more in the final 24 minutes.

"Our defense came back," said Prospect coach John Camardella after his team ended a four-game losing streak. "Elk Grove does a nice job on dribble drive up the middle, and they're deceptive. It's a credit to them. We struggled, but we made a nice adjustment and were able to limit their offense the rest of the way."

Robert Hult led Elk Grove (5-10, 0-4) with 9 points as its three-game winning streak was snapped.

"We got some good penetration early, some dump-offs and some nice looks," said Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman. "Then in the second and third quarter we were forced out to the perimter."

The all-around play of Kelly (10 points) and senior center Kevin Reed (8 points, 11 rebounds), and strong defensive play from Matkovic fueled a third-quarter run that put the Knights (10-5, 4-0) up by double digits.

"We picked up our defense," said Matkovic, "and that made our offense start to jell.

"When we play defense like that, we come together as a team."

Elk Grove was able to get within 10 late when Tim Furlong (8 points) canned the first of his 2 fourth-quarter 3-pointers, but free throws from Reibel (8 points) and Redding helped Prospect extend the lead.

Jason Leblebijian scored 11 for Prospect while Donny Duschinsky added 8 points for the Grens.

Elk Grove center Matt Martinski came into the game averaging almost 19 points in his last 7 outings but was held to 7 points by Prospect's tenacious defense.

"They run their offense through the big guy," added Kelly. "We did all we could to take him out of the game."

Salasini did not return to the game, and Camadella said the junior would have his injury evaluated.

JJ Lastovich added 5 points for the Grens.

"We had a stretch where points were hard to come by," said Furman. "I think we went about 10 minutes where we only scored 6 points."

"They held us at bay, but with all that we were still right there, because we were doing a good job on defense. We fought hard."