St. Viator overcomes adversity, Prospect
The St. Viator boys basketball team has not faced much adversity this season. That came to a screaming halt in Tuesday night's nonconference neighborhood rivalry game with Prospect at Cahill Gym in Arlington Heights.
One of the Lions' dominant players, sophomore swingman and leading scorer Ore Arogundade, had to leave the game with a sprained leftankle with two minutes left in the first quarter. Although he came back to play a few minutes in the second quarter, Arogundade sat out the second half and was on crutches.
The Lions' bench and starters picked up the slack to post a thrilling 72-67 nonconference win. The win avenged a 75-72 loss to the Knights in the fifth-place game at the Wheeling Tournament in December.
"We were looking for some revenge," said Viator senior center Chris Myjak. "With Ore down someone had to step up. I guess I stepped up. Mark (Falotico) stepped up big for us (14 points, 7 rebounds). I just feel much more confident in my game."
"Chris can do so many things for us," said Viator coach Mike Howland. "In the second half we wanted to get the ball down low in the block for him."
Myjak led the 21-3 Lions with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Myjak keyed a 12-0 run with 5 points and 3 rebounds to erase a 37-31 Prospect lead.
The Knights (14-8) hung tough. Brad Reibel (19 points) scored on back to back baskets and Mike LaTulip hit a free throw for his 21st point of the night to tie the game at 61-61 with 5:09 left.
Alex Thierjung of Prospect hit his third 3 with 2:08 left to tie the game at 66-66.
Myjak hit from underneath at 1:58 and then connected on 2 free throws with 47 seconds left for a 70-66 lead.
Reibel hit a free throw with 20 seconds left, and after the Lions missed 2 free throws the Knights lost the ball along the right sideline with at 0:12. D.J. Morris (15 points) hit 2 free throws with 0:05 left for the final score.
"We've been a first-half team all year," said Prospect coach John Camardella. "Viator showed they are an outstanding team. Without Arogundade they still won. I thought Falotico did a great a great job. Not just scoring, but rebounding and loose balls.
"This game was a little frustrating and disappointing. They start the second half with the 12-0 run and we have to chase them the rest of the night."
"I thought (Danny) Forde and Mayo (Arogundade) did a great job on LaTulip," said Lions coach Mike Howland. "It was a hard 21 points for him. LaTulip is a great player and Forde is a great defender. It was a great matchup."
LaTulip scored a career-high 44 points and hit seven 3s Friday against Buffalo Grove. He was averaging 29.3 points in his last six games.
"We had to deny him the ball," said Forde about LaTulip. "He had to really work for his points to get them. It was a great job by him to get his points. Tonight we showed the depth that we have."
The Lions' bench came up with 25 points including 9 from Kevin Hammarlund.
"We made a lot of mental errors tonight and we still found a way to win," said Howland. "We have to execute better and we'll work on that tomorrow in practice."
Prospect was able to keep itself in the game most of the night with 23 of 29 at the foul line. But the Knights hit only 6 of 10 in the fourth quarter. St. Viator hit finished 21 of 34 at the line and 13 of 18 in the final quarter.
The Lions face Joliet Catholic on Thursday night in Cahill in hopes of wrapping up their first outright East Suburban Catholic Conference title in program history.