Waukegan ends hopes for Prospect run
Prospect believed it was ready to play a part in the boys basketball postseason for awhile.
The Knights had been on a roll the last six weeks en route to winning the Mid-Suburban League title. They felt good about how they played in a regular-season ending loss at Chicago Public League champion Brooks.
All of it figured to prepare the seventh-seeded Knights for a difficult first step with No. 10 Waukegan in Wednesday night’s Class 4A Mundelein regional semifinal.
It turned out to be the last step to this season for Prospect (17-9) as it trailed most of the way and then gave up the final 5 points in a 49-45 loss.
“It was not supposed to end like that,” said Prospect junior guard Mike LaTulip, who had one and two defenders harassing him all night into 13 points on 5-for-16 shooting with 3 assists. “I thought Saturday (at Brooks) would be a good indicator of what was to come with a little playoff run. But we fell asleep in the first quarter.”
Prospect overcame deficits of 26-13 and 40-32 after three quarters to take a pair of 1-point fourth-quarter leads. But 3 of its 21 turnovers in the last 2½ minutes helped send Waukegan (12-12) into Friday’s 7:30 p.m. regional final with No. 2 Mundelein (27-4).
“I didn’t think the pressure would get to us as much as it did,” Prospect coach John Camardella said after a 37-25 rebound edge was offset by Waukegan committing only 10 turnovers.
“We sped ourselves up and we were our own worst enemy tonight,” said Prospect senior Matt Loebbaka, who had 14 points and 16 rebounds. “Stupid mistakes down the stretch really caught up to us.”
While it was a two-man offensive game for the Bulldogs with Akeem Springs (21 points) and Aaron Johnson (20 points), there were a litany of defensive contributors as Devonte Taylor, Kenny Jones and Johnson all took turns sticking with LaTulip.
“They have a number of dangerous guys but we wanted to make sure he didn’t have a night,” said Waukegan coach Ron Ashlaw. “He can do that for them. When we really lock down on people we’re tough to beat.”
Prospect wound up 19½ points below its average with its lowest total of the season as it shot 32.7 percent from the field (18-for-55).
“Everybody seemed a little shaky and not really into it,” LaTulip said.
The Knights got back in it on successive 3-pointers by LaTulip, Terry Redding and Grant DePalma to start the fourth quarter. LaTulip’s block of Johnson’s drive led to Redding finding Loebbaka for a layup and their first lead at 43-42 with 3:47 left.
Redding’s layup assist to Danny O’Brien put them up 45-44 at 2:50. But a turnover near midcourt turned into a runout for Johnson at 2:04.
Springs sandwiched 2 free throws at 0:46 and another at 0:23 around a Prospect five-second turnover.
“They’re a streaky team and you have to withstand their runs,” Loebbaka said. “We had a couple of good runs of our own. We knew it would be a battle but unfortunately we were on the losing end tonight.”