Girls basketball: Prospect overcomes injuries, wins key MSL game at Hersey

After losing two starters to injuries in the last two games, Prospect coach Matt Weber called it a "next man up" situation for his girls basketball team as it went into Friday's Mid-Suburban East showdown at Hersey.

Well, the next time fans look up the East standings, they'll see three teams tied for first after the Knights eventually pulled away to a 46-36 win at the Ken Carter Gymnasium in Arlington Heights.

Led by senior Alli Linke's game-high 21 points, 12 from junior Zoe Black and 11 from freshman Ashkley Skelton, the Knights improved to 11-7 and are now tied with Fremd (15-3) and Hersey (11-5) for first place.

All three are 4-1 after the first half of divisional play.

"I'm just so proud of our group," said Weber, who lost both freshman Mia Marling for the season with an ACL injury in Tuesday's 45-42 loss to Fremd and her classmate McKenna Carroll for about six weeks due to a fracture in her shin suffered one week ago in a 42-35 win over Huntley.

Knights junior Maeve Johl is sidelined on concussion protocol and senior teammate Libby McDonough injured a knee against Benet on Dec. 9.

"We've spent a lot of time talking about adversity," Weber said. "We just have the mentality of 'next man up' and we know we have very strong leadership on this team with our three captains - Linke, Black and (Allison) Warnement - and they just made sure the team came together and made sure we had some good practices to prepare for Hersey.

"They're a great team and very well coached. They play extremely hard defensively. But it's just the will of our team where we are not quitting on our goals for the season and we just want to keep working."

The Knights worked hard from the get-go, jumping ahead 5-0 with a fastbreak layup and a 3-pointer by the 6-foot Skelton with 4:01 left in the first period.

"Ashley Skelton came out on fire for us and really set the tone," Weber said. "And then at the end Alli (Linke) was just really stepping up. Ella Daly gave us big minutes and 'next man up' Tess Brennan (freshman) also gave us big minutes. It was just the mentality everyone had that we had to stick together as a team."

With 1:20 left in the first quarter, Black made a steal and fired a pass to Skelton for a fastbreak layup to put Prospect ahead 9-4. But Hersey came back with the final 7 points of the period.

Back-to-back buckets from Kate Donovan (the second off an assist from freshman Luciana Pesoli) got the hosts to within 9-8 before sophomore Ellie Molster's 3-pointer gave Hersey an 11-9 lead heading into the second quarter.

Hersey gained its biggest lead at 13-9 on Molster's steal and layup but Prospect went ahead for good on Skelton's baseline driving layup and 15-13 lead with 5:11 left until half. Black's 3-pointer pushed the lead to 22-15 late in the first half.

Hersey got to within 25-24 on Etta Fischer's bank shot off an assist from Donovan with 6:06 left in the third quarter. But Prospect went on a 10-0 run and Hersey never got closer than 7 points.

Linke scored 19 of her 21 points (9 in the fourth quarter including a 3-pointer) in the second half and was 8-of- 8 for the game at the free throw line.

"This was a big team win," she said. "Everyone played so well. l thought Ashley and Zoe, especially in the first half, really stepped up and kind of got us going. We had so much energy on and off the court from the bench. It was just really fun.

"We know that teams are going to hit their shots. We know sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. But we know we can control what we do, playing hard on offense and on defense. That's what we did for the whole game."

Hersey was led by Emily's Hany's 10 points while Sadie Marks and Molster each had 8.

"Prospect's defense is really good," said Hersey coach Courtney Ludois. "It wasn't just us missing shots. It was them, forcing us into those, too. We held Alli Linke to two points in the first half. I thought we had a good game plan for that and then, like good teams do, they adjusted to it and I feel like we didn't respond.

"I feel like we need to play with more confidence than we're playing with right now. We played hard, which I always tell my kids I'll never doubt them for that. But we've got to be better at adjusting when teams make runs at us."

No one is surprised at the three-way tie for first.

"That's what we predicted, right?" Ludois said. "We're all going to take each other out at some point so we're back in a three-way tie for first and that's the beauty of this conference. It's going to be a battle every night in the conference. Prospect won that battle tonight, for sure."