Prospect's 'D' stifles Meadows
Prospect's boys basketball team will live and die by its defense. Saturday night the Knights defense lived up to expectations.
Playing on their home court for the first time since Dec. 11, the host Knights crushed Rolling Meadows for the second time this season with a 72-37 victory in the Mid-Suburban East.
Jason Leblebijian was the defensive star once again in holding Mustangs' leading scorer Richie Kemph to zero points on only 3 shot attempts.
"Coach (John Camardella) puts me on the other teams best scorer," said Leblebijian. "Last time he scored 2 points on me. This time I didn't want him to score any. It's all about pride and hustle.
"Our motto this week was 'That this game is more important to us than them.'"
Now the Knights (12-5, 6-0) could actually clinch a share of the East title and berth in the MSL title game with a win at Buffalo Grove on Friday.
But they found themselves in a fight as the Mustangs trailed just 14-11 at the end of the first quarter. A Jimmy Garoppolo (10 points) basket to start the second quarter pulled them within 14-13 but would come no closer.
The Knights went on a 10-0 run with Joe LaTulip (13 points) scoring five. Garoppolo scored for the Mustangs before a 7-0 run helped put the Knights ahead 31-17 at halftime.
Leading 42-27 with 4:40 left in the third, the Knights finished the quarter with a 17-0 run for a 59-27 lead.
"Our defense led by Jason was the difference," Camardella said. "He is our emotional leader on defense. We key off of his defensive efforts.
"We did alot of things right. We had balance scoring and with the exception of the first quarter we ran the floor well. I think the players were really prepared for this game."
Kevin Reed led the Knights with 17 pts and 8 rebounds.
Will Trunk added 9 points for the Mustangs (8-10, 3-3), who were outrebounded 25-3 for the contest.
"I have to take responsibility for this one for not having the team ready," said Meadws coach Kevin Katovich. "We did not execute one iota from either our offensive or our defensive game plan.
"Leblebijian is a good defender. We just couldn't get Kemph the ball. We just had a total lack of execution."