Prospect edges St. Viator in intense battle
The Prospect and St. Viator boys basketball teams showed what high school sports is all about Friday in tournament play at Wheeling.
With fifth place on the line, the game had the intensity of a sectional championship.
When the smoke cleared at the 34th Hardwood Classic, Prospect had escaped with a 75-72 win over the Lions.
“It was awesome,” said Prospect coach John Camardella, who returned to the Knights after the birth of daughter Marley just a couple of days ago. “It was one of the most fun games we’ve been in this year. As a team we really made a lot of progress and received contributions from a lot of different places.”
Brad Reibel added 10 points and Keven Somogyi had 9 points for the Knights, who shot 26 of 47 from the field.
Reserves Alex Thierjung and Devin O’Hara (8 points, 2 blocks) were two of the main factors that helped the Knights improve to 7-5 and finish 3-1 in the tournament.
“I was so happy for Alex,” said Camardella. “Here’s a player who didn’t play a single varsity minute last year. We have guys who make the commitment to learn the system. We missed him for three weeks with a ankle injury after the St. Pat tournament in November. It shows what he means to this team. The same with O’Hara. He’s coming along as well.”
Thierjung (16 points on 5-of-6 shooting) came into the game late in the first quarter. With 0:28 left, he hit 2 free throws after a technical foul was assessed on St.Viator coach Mike Howland. Thierjung then hit a 3-pointer as time expired to give the Knights a 22-8 lead.
“I’m a role player,” said Theirjung. “When I come in, I want to have a lot of energy on defense that I can contribute to the team. I just let the offense come. I worked hard in practice and knew that as a senior my time would come.”
Ore Arogundade (25 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals) scored 13 points in the second quarter to narrow the gap at halftime to 36-32.
“We talked about the score at halftime,” said Howland. “I told them that if we let Prospect score 72 points, we would lose. Well, they scored 75 and we lost.”
The Lions’ last lead was 46-45 with 2:29 left in the third quarter.
The 3-pointer by Mike LaTulip, who led the Knights with 25 points, gave Prospect a 48-46 lead with 2:13 left and the Knights never trailed. But the game stayed close.
With :48 left, LaTulip hit 2 free throws. The Knights connected on 19 of 22 fouls shots in the game, including 7 of their last 8 to take a 75-69 lead. Orogundade hit a 3 pointer to narrow the lead to 75-72 with :28 left.
St. Viator had a last possession with 10 seconds left.
D.J. Morris (18 points, 5 assists) fired up a shot from 3-point range, but the attempt fell short as time expired.
Kevin Walsh finished with 18 points for the Lions.
“We were hoping to go to Walsh off a screen but they did a good job defensing it,” said Howland. “We were able to swing the ball to Morris, but the shot just didn’t drop.”