Boys basketball: Inspired Prospect avenges loss to Rolling Meadows

Before the start of Friday night’s Rolling Meadows-Prospect boys basketball game at Prospect, the Knights’ 1965-66 boys hoops squad was celebrated and commemorated.

Six members from that sectional semifinalist once again heard applause from the stands.

“Ninety minutes before the game, we shook their hands and heard them reminisce about their amazing season,” said Prospect senior guard Will Stratigos. “They told us to be strong tonight and couldn’t wait to support us. Prospect culture — it runs deep.

“That was inspiring,” he added.

The 6-foot Stratigos and his teammates then hit the court at Jean Walker Fieldhouse for the teams' Mid-Suburban League West finale and gave the special contingent of alumni plenty of reasons to clap the hands that helped their team rack up 21 wins in 26 games 60 years ago.

Stratigos, a gamer through and through, had game highs of 16 points (including 4 treys) and 10 rebounds in the Knights’ 46-35 triumph.

The win avenged a 45-42 road loss to RM’s Mustangs on Jan. 13 and upped Prospect’s records to 12-16 overall and 2-8 in the division.

RM slipped to 16-11, 3-7.

Things looked bleak for Prospect at 1:48 of the second quarter. Coach Brad Rathe — fittingly sporting an old-school “P” sweater that would have looked perfectly normal on Richie Cunningham in the TV show “Happy Days” — and his crew had scored only 11 points, none in the frame.

Meadows had tallied 18.

Stratigos then nailed a three-pointer, and Knights senior guard Colin Tucker (10 points) netted a trey 48 seconds later.

The hosts trailed 18-17 at the break.

“Lackluster first half,” admitted Stratigos.

Prospect’s second half, in a word: lustrous.

The Knights struck for the first 7 points of the third quarter, capped off by a triple from senior guard Anderson Neach (10 points). Prospect scored only 6 points, via a pair of Stratigos three-pointers, in the final 4:28 of the quarter but led 30-25 heading into the fourth quarter.

Prospect junior guard Quinn Zinzer (10 points) and Tucker combined for 5 points in the first 1:47 of the final quarter, prompting Mustangs coach Kevin Katovich to call a timeout as soon as Tucker’s trey jostled the net.

The eventual winners earned a trio of 12-point leads from there and enjoyed their biggest advantage, 46-33, with 48 seconds left.

“Hats off to Prospect,” Katovich said. “That team played hard, played really well, and played outstanding defense. They took us out of what we wanted to do.

“One-hundred-percent credit should go to Prospect,” he added.

Senior guard Tyler Stankiewicz paced RM with 9 points, followed by senior guard Andrew Krestel (8), senior forward Marty Lesner (7) and senior forward Sean Kerr (5). Stankiewicz came down with a team-high 6 boards.

“Good win,” Rathe said. “Meadows is having a very good season. Wins came few and far between for us in the MSL West — a gauntlet of a division. I told our guys before the game, ‘We’re on our home floor tonight, with players from that 1965-66 team present. Let’s go out there and play hard. A lot of people are proud of this school.’”

Those grand old hoopsters from the 1960s must have identified strongly with Stratigos, whose brand of basketball is pure old-school. He eschews flash, and that proverbial grindstone is losing, big-time, to Stratigos’ fierce nose.

“I’m competitive,” he said. “Been that way my whole life. I like to be intense and focused when I battle. Checkers? I want to win badly, whenever I play that game. My teammates are intense checkers players, too.

“This win tonight was big,” he continued. “It was the seniors’ last division game, ever.”

Prospect received the 10th seed in the Class 4A Fremd sectional; RM is seeded sixth in the same sectional.