Prospect passes St. Viator's test in fifth-place examination

Prospect had its composure tested when it watched an 8-point lead cut to 2 by St. Viator with a little more than a minute to play in Thursday's fifth-place game of Wheeling's 33rd annual Wildcat Hardwood Classic boys basketball tournament.

The Knights (9-3) passed the test by scoring 8 of the last 11 points to finish 3-1 in the tournament with a 70-63 victory.

"We have more experience through the year and we're really comfortable playing with each other," said Prospect senior guard Grant DePalma after he had 10 points and 6 rebounds. "It really helped us out down the stretch."

All-tourney pick Mike LaTulip hit all 6 of his free throws in the final 1:04 and scored 14 of his game-high 25 points in the final 7:48. Matt Loebbaka (20 points, 7 rebounds, 4 blocks) had a layup off a Dan O'Brien feed with 37 seconds left to put Prospect up 66-60 en route to its second straight 3-1 finish at Wheeling.

"Down the stretch with how good and solid Viator is, something we really focused on and kept preaching before the game and during the game was execution down the stretch," said Prospect coach John Camardella. "We lost it a little toward the end but then we regained it. We knew it wouldn't be the type of game to get out of hand."

A 3-pointer by Brian Wilhite with 27 seconds left cut the Viator (9-3) deficit to 66-63 but LaTulip came through at the line as Prospect finished 17-for-18.

"We were still locked in and we had to respond the next play down," Loebbaka said after he shot 8-for-12 from the floor. "It was good to cut the momentum off right there."

Viator's Chris Myjak (20 points) and Loebbaka waged a nice inside duel in the third quarter. Myjak scored 10 straight points and his layup off Cameron Korab's offensive rebound and assist tied it at 40-40.

But Loebbaka scored twice inside and Prospect got reserve help with 2 free throws from Quinn Drinan and a layup by 6-9 Will Botefuhr off a DePalma feed in an 8-0 run that put Prospect ahead to stay. Brad Reibel also had 4 points and 3 rebounds before he suffered a concussion on a hard fall with 6 1-2 minutes to play.

"To come out 3-1 is a big confidence booster," Loebbaka said. "We got a lot of production from our bench and we feel pretty good right now."

LaTulip also hit two 3s to start the fourth quarter to put Prospect up 54-46. A layup by Kevin Walsh (13 points, 5 assists) capped a 6-point run to get Viator within 62-60 with 1:11 to play.

Wilhite had 11 points and D.J. Morris added 10 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists for the Lions.

"We're off and on defensively," Myjak said of what will be the Lions' big second-half emphasis. "We look really good one night and the next night we don't do so well."

Loyola 54, Wheeling 41: Freshman Jeremy Stephani hit five 3-pointers and scored a game-high 16 points but Wheeling (4-8) fell behind 20-9 after a quarter in the seventh-place game. Ricky Schwind added 13 points and hit 2 free throws for the Wildcats.