Boys basketball: Stratigos heats up in Prospect’s win over Barrington

Will Stratigos channeled his inner Allen Iverson on Friday night.

The Prospect High senior guard said he had a tough week of shooting during practices, with finals week providing a major distraction.

However, he decided he was going to have a big shooting night on Friday against rival Barrington regardless of how practices had gone during the week full of finals.

Mission accomplished, as Stratigos scored a career-high 21 points and hit five 3-pointers in a 69-59 win for the Knights over the Broncos.

“I just had a rough week, all week shooting,” Stratigos said. “It’s been bad. But I came in today like I’m going to light it up. First shot, nothing but net, I just kind of knew.”

Stratigos hit two 3-pointers in the second quarter, including the second one, which saw him fall to the ground as he was fouled. He completed the and-one, four-point play with ease.

He hit two more 3s in the third quarter as Prospect pushed its halftime lead from four points to 12 points.

“My god, this (win) is big,” Stratigos said of juggling finals and a winter break ahead. “It’s been a stressful week. Everyone’s been working hard. We just needed some sort of reward at the end of the week.”

Stratigos also added three rebounds and a steal. He hit another 3-pointer in the fourth quarter and two key free throws, for good measure.

“That was his career game,” Prospect coach Brad Rathe said. “That was fun to watch. He’s our emotional leader, and that was a career game for him. He’s my guy, I am so proud of him.”

Stratigos had a strong supporting cast around him. Quinn Zinzer finished with 19 points, three assists, two rebounds and a steal, while Colin Tucker had 10 points, four assists and four rebounds.

However, it was Anderson Neach who came off the bench and made the biggest impact after Barrington cut the lead to five points. He collected an offensive rebound and a putback to help keep the Broncos at bay. Neach finished with 14 points and six rebounds off the bench.

“Anderson has started a lot of games for us this year and he came in a different role,” Rathe said. “That offensive rebound when they were making a run was huge.”

Jackson Roberts scored 10 of his 18 points in the second half to help Barrington cut a 13-point deficit to five points. He also added five steals, three rebounds and three steals.

Oliver Gray added 15 points, five rebounds and a steal, while Luke Loughlin finished with nine points, two rebounds, two steals and an assist off the bench.

“I thought we didn’t execute a lot of things that we wanted to do and we’re working to get there,” Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said. “So, I didn’t think we played very well.”