Regional title a late Knight thriller for Prospect

Prospect's initial thrills from an early 19-point lead were long gone midway through the fourth quarter Friday night.

Loyola kept chipping away to within 3 points with 3:37 to play to send a chill through the big home crowd in Jean Walker Field House in Prospect's Class 4A boys basketball regional championship game.

But the Knights didn't lose their will under the late-game pressure.

They scored 10 of the last 13 points and experienced the thrill of being mobbed by their "Underground" student section with a 61-51 victory.

"Every week it keeps getting better and better," said Prospect senior guard Jason Leblebijian as he clutched the school's first regional title plaque since 2002. "We've set all of our goals and so far we've achieved all of them."

The fourth-seeded Knights (21-7) reversed a 2-point December loss to No. 5 Loyola (17-12) to advance to Tuesday's 7:30 p.m. sectional semifinal at Niles North.

Now they'll get a chance to avenge a 74-57 loss in late January against top-seed Glenbrook North (21-4), which beat Evanston 73-58 at New Trier.

"I'm so glad these kids get to go through it," said second-year Prospect coach John Camardella, whose team lost to Evanston in last year's regional final.

It wasn't easy as it appeared when the Knights raced to a 30-11 lead 2:47 before halftime. They hit 6 of their first 7 shots and committed only 1 turnover.

"It's really tough to dig out of that big of a hole against a team as talented as that," Loyola coach Bryan Tucker said after his team's four-year regional title run ended.

"It was nice to see us come out with that much fire on the offensive and defensive end," said Prospect junior Jack Redding, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds.

"I thought we ran very well," said Prospect 6-foot-7 senior Kevin Reed, who had 5 of his 6 assists, 8 of his 14 points and 4 of his 9 rebounds in the early blitz.

"Everyone got out and filled the lanes. We had the crowd, and it was my last time playing here, so I was just of my mind."

But the Knights knew Loyola wasn't going to quietly go out of sight.

Brown-bound Matt Sullivan scored 16 of his 20 points after halftime and his drive cut the Ramblers' deficit to 51-48 with 3:37 to play.

"When you play a good team like Loyola you know the momentum is going to shift," said Prospect guard Joe LaTulip, who had a team-high 18 points. "We had to keep our composure."

Redding then missed a 15-footer badly to the right off the backboard but raced in and put it back with 3:05 left.

"The luck of the Irish," Redding smiled of his start to the Knights' 10-3 finish.

LaTulip went 4-for-4 on free throws, Bobby Reibel scored off a miss and the celebration was on moments after Redding hit Reed for a layup.

"Everyone on this team loves to be in the spotlight," Reed said. "When the pressure's on we step up."