Conant maintains control in win over Prospect
When Conant controls the tempo it can seem like a losing battle for the opposition.
That’s how it felt for Prospect in Tuesday night’s Mid-Suburban League boys basketball crossover between division leaders. London Dokubo scored off the opening tip and the Cougars never trailed in a 58-46 victory at Perry Gymnasium in Hoffman Estates.
“We were able to control the ball and hold the ball around for a lot of long possessions,” said Dokubo, who had 11 points and 9 assists and dogged Prospect scoring leader Mike LaTulip all night. “They’re a team that can score a lot of points so it was definitely important for us to get back on defense and limit them in transition.”
The stingy Cougars (11-3), who gave up an uncharacteristic 96 points in a first-round loss to Lyons in the York tournament, built a 56-37 lead with three minutes left and held the Knights (9-5) to their season-low offensive output.
Prospect came in averaging 65 points a game but shot just 35.6 percent from the field (16-for-45) and committed 16 turnovers.
“In games like this, especially against Conant,” said Prospect coach John Camardella, “it’s funny to say it but if you get down early it’s almost impossible to come back.
“You have contrasting styles and a lot of it is who is able to get the tempo in their favor the earliest. We had it in the first quarter a little bit but Conant really got the game in its tempo and executed extremely well.”
That led to a balanced attack as Brian Wadsworth scored 15 of his career-high 19 points in the second half. Dylan Bartuch scored 12 of his 14 after the break and Avery Osby scored all 8 of his points in the first quarter.
“We changed our offense up a little bit and everybody was getting more shots and making more shots,” Wadsworth said after Conant shot 51 percent (23-for-45) and committed only 8 turnovers the first 30 minutes. “Our offense was a lot better and our defense was sound like usual.
“I think we’re strongest when everybody contributes. We spread it around and found the best shot for each other.”
LaTulip had 16 points to fall just 2 points shy of his average but his open looks were limited. He finished 4-for-8 from the field and 3-for-5 on 3-pointers against Dokubo.
“He was really on him all game and did a great job,” Wadsworth said.
“Watching film coach said he takes about 40 percent of their shots and is their main guy,” Dokubo said. “The whole team had a real good focus on him and we tried to limit his transition shot opportunities.”
Terry Redding added 11 points and 7 rebounds for Prospect, which travels to Hersey on Friday in a battle of MSL East unbeatens.
But MSL West-leading Conant showed just how difficult it is to play from behind when it had the ball for the first 1:35 of the second half before Sean Bourke scored on a drive.
“We were pretty solid defensively and we let our offense help our defense out,” said Conant coach Tom McCormack. “We did a good job of possessing the ball and making the extra pass.”