Winans, Knights avoid Grens' upset bid
Prospect's girls basketball team escaped with an overtime win over Elk Grove when the two teams played a little over two weeks ago in the Mid-Suburban East.
Tuesday's second encounter might have seen another extra-session contest but the Knights survived 55-52 after the host Grenadiers missed a 3-pointer in the final seconds.
Prospect coach Martha Kelly, whose team improved to 17-5 and 6-1 in the East, summed up the two games with the feisty Grenadiers.
"I guess you could say they've got our number," she said.
The big number for Prospect came from sophomore guard Sarah Winans, who delivered a career-high 24 points with 3 3-pointers.
Those 24 points are the most by any Knight all season. Prospect does not have a player averaging more than 7.8 points per game.
"Obviously, Winans (6.3 ppg) was on fire," said Elk Grove coach Ryan Kirkorsky. "We had to change up our defense to deal with her."
The Knights dealt the Grenadiers an 8-0 run that spanned between the second and third quarters, capped by Winans' 3-pointer and free throw which made it 33-23.
Prospect led 41-31 when the hosts began to chip away at the lead and came to within 53-50 when Ashley Capotosto (team-high 22 points, 15 rebounds) took a pass from Dani Jorgensen (6 points) and scored a layup with 47 seconds left.
Lexi Glennon's free throw made it 54-50 before Capotosto scored again with 25 seconds left, cutting it to 54-52.
Lexi Glennon then made 1-of-2 free throws with 23 seconds remaining for the final margin.
After the missed 3-pointer with five seconds left, Elk Grove grabbed the rebound and tried to toss it back out to the 3-point line but Lexi Glennon swiped the ball and secured the win for Prospect.
Danielle Brucci (8 points), Alyssa Glennon (7 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists) and Rachel Hunt (7 points, 6 rebounds, 2 blocked shots) were other tops scorers for Prospect. Marissa Pettenuzzo had 3 rebounds.
"This was really a good game with Elk Grove again," Winans said. "We came out really strong and tried to maintain that pace all the way."
Alyssa Glennon, who handed off a nice assist for Sarah Hunt's bank shot and 50-43 lead, said patient offense was the key.
"We tried not to force things," she said. "We had to know when to push forward and when to be patient."
"I thought we did a better job this time taking care of the basketball," Kelly added. "We limited our turnovers and we focused on rebounding and boxing out Ashley (Capotosto). I thought we did a good job in the second half with that."
Junior guard Olivia Roback had 13 points, 4 assists and 3 steals for Elk Grove while teammate Meaghan Amann collected 6 rebounds.
"We're getting there," Kirkorsky added about his young squad. "We talked about minimizing our turnovers, and we did. But we did make some crucial ones in the fourth quarter."