Quick start helps Prospect notch win
There were two ways Prospect could have started its game against Naperville Central in the opening round of the 33rd annual Wheeling Wildcat Hardwood Classic on Monday: ready or rusty.
It had been nine days since the Knights' last game, and they must have used their time off advantageously as they jumped out to a 12-3 lead in the game's first three minutes and went on to a 56-38 victory.
“We take pride in coming out strong in the first quarter and third quarter,” said Prospect guard Mike LaTulip, who scored a game-high 23 points. “We had a long time off, and we were practicing to try to keep our cardio and legs up. We hopped out to that big lead and then you do what you can on the defensive end to sustain it.”
As LaTulip alluded, the Knights (6-3) also had a strong push to start the third quarter, featuring several fastbreak layups.
“I felt in the second half we really needed to get out in transition,” Prospect coach John Camardella said. “It was a 10-point game at half. That was our big thing, to get out in transition and see if we can stretch the game a little bit, and it worked out.”
LaTulip said at halftime Camardella only wrote one thing on the board in the Prospect locker room: “transition.”
“Our big guys were turning and looking down the floor and we had a couple wide-open layups,” LaTulip said. “It was like boom, boom, boom. That just kind of opened the lead. We got up to a 20-point lead and just kind of put it away.”
Prospect's Danny O'Brien was the primary defender on Naperville Central's (3-7) talented senior forward David Niggins. While Niggins managed to score 18 points in the game, he was just 6-of-18 shooting partly because of the defense of O'Brien (9 points, 8 rebounds).
“That was my goal going into it,” O'Brien said. “It doesn't matter if he scores a lot of points as long as it took him a lot of shots.”
When O'Brien wasn't covering Niggins, junior Brad Reibel (4 points) was.
Prospect faces Notre Dame today at 5:30 p.m. in the championship bracket, while Naperville Central takes on Kenwood at 9 a.m. in consolation play.