Wildcats win for Wool; Prospect snaps skid

The Wheeling boys basketball team had a special reason to win Friday's Mid-Suburban East game against visiting Hersey.

In all his years as a player and coach, Wheeling's Lou Wool never missed one of his team's basketball games.

However, Friday night, Wool and his family were at the hospital for their mother's surgery.

With assistant Don Rowley Jr. taking the reins, the Wildcats rallied from a 10-point second-quarter deficit and posted a 51-43 victory.

The host Wildcats (5-8, 2-2) used an 11-0 run down stretch to pull away for the victory.

Senior guard Michael Barton (10 points) hit a 3-pointer to start the rally with 3:38 left in the game.

"We wanted to play hard and get the win for Mr. Wool," said Barton, who also handed out 6 assists and collected a pair of steals. "This was the first game in his life he missed. We wanted to defeat Hersey for the conference win but more importantly, we wanted to win for our coach."

Seniors James Kurtz (3 assists) and Michael Zimmer (6 rebounds, 2 steals) led the Wildcats with 12 points apiece while senior Robert Carter added 7, including his team's first 6 points.

"Without coach Wool, that's all we were thinking about - he and his family," said Rowley Jr., whose father Don (former Hersey head coach) was sitting alongside as a current member of the Wheeling staff. "The kids really wanted to win for him (Wool) and they put in their best effort of the season. By far, we played our best man-to-man defense."

Rowley Jr. was particularly pleased with Zimmer's defensive work.

"That No. 23 (junior Kyle Miklasz, who led Hersey with 12 points) killed us with the 3 3-pointers in the first half," said Rowley Jr., who played for Hersey. "But Zimmer shut him down in the second half (1 free throw)."

Senior Kyle Mengarelli added 11 points for Hersey (5-10, 1-3) while junior Jordan Mertes added 9.

"This team had no soul," said Hersey coach Steve Messer. "We didn't run a good offense. We were afraid. We were settling for jump shots that didn't take any risk-taking instead of attacking the rim. When we got the lead (19-9), we were doing those things."

Miklasz's 3-pointer made it 18-9 but Wheeling received buckets from Zimmer, Frank Frasco (4 rebounds) and Barton to quickly cut it to 4 points and trailed only 23-20 at the break.

"At half, we knew if we hustled and played good defense, we could win the game," Barton said. "We started communicating better and we knew if we could get the ball into the post we had a better chance of winning the game."

"We had balanced scoring which was great," Rowley Jr. added. "The kids were sharing the basketball and playing unselfish."

Prospect 52, Elk Grove 39: 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."

- Bill Esbrook

Barrington 47, Palatine 45: Mack Darrow capped a 28-point night by scoring off a steal with about 25 seconds left to put Barrington (3-14, 1-3) ahead for good in its MSL West home victory.

"It was a great game," said Barrington coach Marty Dello. "Mack rebounded and blocked shots. He really did a good job."

Darrow appeared to put Barrington ahead with 28 seconds left but his rebound basket was wiped out by a charging call. After Dello took a timeout, Darrow and Daniel Evers combined for a steal off full-court pressure.

Palatine (2-13, 0-4) missed a shot for the lead and Evers was fouled on the rebound. He made the first of 2 free throws and rebounded the miss and ran out the clock.

Barrington's Bryan Wegner also returned from missing Tuesday night's game with a concussion to get 4 steals and run the offense.

Matt Rossi led Palatine with 14 points.

Maine West 45, Highland Pk. 37: Yozi Cuevas (14 points) hit 4 of the Warriors' nine 3-pointers in the first half of the Central Suburban North win in Des Plaines.

Maine West (3-13, 2-2) got its first 8 field goals from behind the 19-foot-9 stripe and finished 10-for-20. Nate Andersen (11 points) and Ryan Tuntland each hit two.

"I said, 'but it's working,'" Maine West coach Erik McNeill said of joking with his team that was not supposed to be like last year's that relied heavily on the 3. "They came out in a zone - and they were falling and that gave us momentum."

Especially Andersen's one second before halftime to give the Warriors a 29-20 lead in their second straight win.