Girls basketball: Prospect caps memorable week by beating Hersey for MSL West title
What a week it was for Prospect girls basketball.
A win over the defending state runner-up Fremd on Tuesday, being awarded the top seed in the Schaumburg sectional on Thursday and then winning the Mid-Suburban East title on Friday night with a 38-29 decision over Hersey on Senior Night at the Jean Walker Field House in Mt. Prospect.
Oh, that's not all.
On a night when Knights coach Matt Weber won his 200th game (Wheeling and Prospect combined), Knights senior Alli Linke became Prospect's all-time leading scorer.
The Murray State pledge scored a game-high 15 points, giving her 1,757 to break Taylor Will's previous record of 1,746 set in 2015.
"This is such a tremendous honor for Alli," said Weber, whose team (18-10, 9-1) finished one game ahead of Hersey (17-8, 8-2) in the East. "She has dedicated four years of her life to Prospect basketball and she does a lot for the program and for the school that people don't know about. She is just a positive person and I'm so proud of her."
"It's been awesome playing here and this (record) is all because of my teammates," said Linke, who is also the pride of St. Paul School in Mt. Prospect. "They trust me with the basketball and they work their butts off when I have just to make sure they can be open when they double team me. It's all because of them and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."
Back-to-back 3-pointers from junior Ella Daly and senior Allison Warnement staked the Knights to a 12-8 lead after one quarter.
Linke set the all-time record within 3:41 left in the second quarter when she took a pass on the run and drove to the basket from the right side for a layup at the west end. The historic bucket gave her 1,747 points and pulled the Knights into a 16-16 tie after Hersey had gone ahead 16-14 when Lexi Miyares found Sadie Marks (team-high 10 points) for a layup and 16-14 lead.
Freshman Ashley Skelton then made a steal and assisted on Linke's 3-pointer which gave Prospect the lead for good at 19-16.
After Marks' layup off an entry pass from Luciana Pesoli got the Huskies to within 19-18, Linke's 3-point play with 1:26 left in the half gave the hosts a 22-18 lead heading into the locker room.
Emily Hany's driving layup drew the Huskies to within 22-20 to start the second half but Prospect went on an 11-0 run, capped by Daly's second 3-pointer for a 33-20 lead with 5:12 left in the third quarter.
Although the Knights didn't score again until Skelton's 6 footer from the baseline with 1:14 left in the game (making it 35-26), the Knights' defense made sure to secure the win.
"We know we are struggling on offense and that means we have to work extra hard on defense," Weber said. "And we have to make sure they're not scoring. We made some adjustments at halftime and the girls really focused on them and executed them. That's just been our focus all season of being very coachable."
Hany added 7 points for Hersey while Ellie Molster had four.
"I'm happy with our defense," said Hersey coach Courtney Ludois. "It took us a little to adjust at the beginning. Alli went off but then I think we slowed her down for the rest of the game.
"She's a tough one to guard. We put Sadie on her and then she shoots it. Then we put Kate (Donovan) on her and she posts up. She is obviously a really great player . I thought we had a good plan coming in. Offensively it wasn't there tonight and we just have to regroup because we play (Saturday)."
Zoe Black added 8 points for Prospect while Skelton and Daly each had 6.
Senior Libby McDonough (also a standout in flag football and softball), who has been sidelined most of the season with a knee injury, saw action in the game as one of the three Knights (Linke and Warnement) who celebrated Senior Night.
"Senior Night is always special, "Weber said. "It was the last time our seniors will play on this court so that means something to them. They wanted to make sure they'd go out the way they wanted and that meant winning this game and advancing to the championship game next week."
Prospect, looking for its first MSL crown, will play in its eighth title game at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Buffalo Grove. Coach Martha Kelly's Bison (21-7) won the West with a 10-0 record.