Prospect downs Hersey
Through the first half of Mid-Suburban East play, Prospect's girls basketball team was known as the comeback kids, rallying for all of its four wins.
Starting the second half on Friday night at Hersey's Ken Carter Gymnasium, the Knights found themselves holding off a comeback.
The Knights surged ahead by 12 points late in the third quarter when junior guard Adriane Falagario fired home a 3-pointer. But Hersey began grinding away at the margin in the final eight minutes.
The Huskies got to within 2 points when Jen Hall made a big sweeping move in the lane and tossed up a soft 10-foot- bank shot with 1:40 left.
But freshman Taylor Will (team-high 12 points, 4 rebounds), once again showing the composure of a senior, hit 2 free throws with 30.9 second left to give Prospect a 39-35 advantage that stood as the final score.
Moments later, junior Michele Molini stole an inbound pass under the Hersey basket and helped the Knights secure the win in the final 10 seconds with her eighth rebound of the game.
Prospect (13-9, 5-1) remained one game behind Rolling Meadows (19-3, 6-0) in the East while Hersey (13-9, 3-3) slipped to three games back.
"I was getting a little nervous there," admitted Knights senior guard Jessica Petrovski, referring to Hersey's fourth-quarter run which included 7 of the first 9 points.
"We were getting a little flustered with their pressure. We've just got to learn to stay together and composed when teams put that pressure on us."
The Knights kept the pressure on Meadows with the win.
"There was pressure to stay one game behind them but we knew we just had to worry about playing our game," Petrovski said. "We pretty much had to stop Jen Hall and Maggie Hogen, and focus on rebounding."
Petrovski, who Knights coach Martha Kelly calls one the best defenders in the MSL, was focused on Hall (11 points) all night while Maura Benson (team-high 10 rebounds, 2 steals) matched up with Hogen (team-high 13 points, 8 rebounds).
Prospect jumped ahead 12-4 before senior Corinne Busby's steal and layup got Hersey to within 12-6 after one quarter.
Hogen kept the Huskies in the game in the second quarter when she scored all 9 of their points and they trailed 20-15 at the break.
But Prospect regained the momentum by starting the third quarter with a 6-0 run, including back-to-back baskets by Petrovski (5 points, 3 assists, 3 steals).
Christina Brucci added 3 points and 3 steals for the Knights.
"We talked about holding them under 40 points as a goal and the girls did it," Kelly said. "The key was stepping up on Jen (Hall, who was playing with a blister on her shooting hand) because she is great player with an outside and inside game, and stopping Maggie Hogen, who Maura did a good job being physical with."
The Huskies, who also received 10 rebounds from Meg Cerniglia and 9 steals from Busby, struggled at the free throw line (6-of-16).
"We had our chances," said Hersey coach Mary Fendley, whose team comes back today and hosts Cary-Grove at 7:30 p.m. "We got a lot of the shots we wanted. We just didn't hit a lot of the shots we normally make.
"I thought we made a real nice comeback. I can't fault the kids' effort. Maggie (Hogen) played great. She hasn't been scoring as much recently but her defense is always good, and this game her offense was impressive, too."