Conant connects against Prospect, claims MSL crown

Conant hit Prospect with a 1-2-2 punch and flattened the Knights 41-35 in the Mid-Suburban League boys basketball championship game Wednesday night in Hoffman Estates.

The Cougars (19-6) won their first MSL title since 2008 and avenged a season-opening loss to the Knights.

The victory also gives the Cougars, who are the top seed in the Class 4A Fremd sectional, momentum heading into the state playoffs which begin next week.

"It's great to play in this environment," said Conant coach Tom McCormack. "The neat thing about this game is that it is a marathon. And now it becomes a sprint, because you take it game by game and if you lose, you are done."

Conant's 1-2-2 defense stymied Prospect (14-11) most of the evening.

The Knights spent a tremendous amount of time on the perimeter and turned the ball over 14 times while shooting just 32 percent (7-for-23) from outside the arc.

"The key to the game was defense," McCormack said. "They are such good shooters. But I think the best thing we did defensively was keeping track of (Frankie) Mack.

"He is really hard to keep track of. In the film we saw, he was getting seven or eight shots a quarter. We held him to nine for the game."

Prospect coach John Camardella said the speed of the game, and the turnovers, really hurt his team's chances.

"It was not the pace we wanted," he said. "And credit Conant for that. We didn't help ourselves with the way we took care of the ball."

Conant also got another huge game from sophomore guard Jimmy Sotos.

The MSL West player of the year came up huge offensively for the Cougars, scoring 22 points and controlling the tempo of the game on the offensive end.

"It was very exciting to win," Sotos said. "We were very motivated to win because they beat us earlier this year. I just did what I could to get us he lead.

With Sotos and Ryan Davis each hitting their first two shots, Conant jumped ahead 9-5.

"We wanted to be able to get inside and score more," said Davis, who finished with 9 points and 6 rebounds. "I was able to do some of that for us tonight."

The Cougars then turned up the defensive intensity with that 1-2-2 defense.

Keeping Prospect away from the hoop, Conant frustrated the Knights' offense, allowing just 9 points in the first 14 minutes while forcing 7 turnovers.

Sotos scored all 6 of Conant's points during that span as the Cougars opened an 18-9 lead.

But a 3-pointer by Prospect's Antonio Gardner and a basket off the transition from David Swedura enabled the Knights to pull within 18-14 at the break.

Sotos scored 10 of his team's next 13 points as Conant built a 31-22 lead with 6:18 to play.

But Prospect finally got its offense in gear. The Knights started getting the ball to the wings and found some uncontested shots as they went on an 8-0 run, thanks to 3-pointers from Matt Szuba and Mack to cut the lead to 31-30 with 3:30 to play.

The teams then traded 3-pointers, with Ben Schols knocking down one for Conant and David Swedura for Prospect, making it 34-33 with 1:53 to play.

Conant then went inside to put the game away.

Davis hit a short shot and Chima Oduocha made a layup off a feed from Sotos to make it 38-33 with 41 seconds left.

A basket by Mack got the Knights within 3 with 28.2 seconds left.

But Schols (7 points) hit a free throw and Sotos made 2 others to ice the game.

"This game represents the body of work through four months," McCormack said. "To culminate it with this is nice, but we have to make sure that this isn't the end of our season."

Szuba led Prospect with 10 points, Mack had 9, Swedura 8 and Liam Benson had 5 points.