Prospect gets it right at Elk Grove
Prospect’s Tommy Flahaven was probably the happiest Knight on the floor when the buzzer sounded.
Flahaven, with :22 left in the game and Prospect nursing what would be the final score at 60-59, lost the ball out of bounds after the Knights had milked the clock since the 1:30 mark. That miscue gave the Grenadiers a last chance at winning the Mid-Suburban East showdown in Elk Grove.
Two shots by the Grenadiers missed, though, and Flahaven gathered up the second of them as time expired.
“I saw an opening on the drive to the basket,” said Flahaven of the lost ball. “I was going to kick it out but it slipped out of my hands. This was a big game for us. We wanted to come off the floor exhausted and having no regrets. I give a lot of credit to our crowd. They were really behind us. This type of game doesn’t happen very often.”
Flahaven scored 5 points, but his defensive effort on Elk Grove standout guard Kishan Patel (7 points) did not go unoticed by Prospect coach John Camardella.
“It was the best defensive effort from Tommy that I have seen this year,” said Camardella. “Our guys really stepped up when they had to. We had been off four 13 days, and so had Elk Grove. It was good to come back and have this type of a game.”
Devin O’Hara was one of those players stepping up. He scored 14 points and had the go-ahead field goal with 2:02 left on a drive to the basket to account for the final score. Then there was Mike Hougton, who grabbed 10 rebounds, scored 12 points, stole the ball twice and had 2 assists.
Bobby Frasco netted 14 before fouling out with 2:39 left.
Frasco’s foul enabled Elk Grove’s Austin Amann to score the last of his 18 points on a 3-point play with 2:39 left in the game for the Grenadiers’ last lead at 59-58.
Amann, though, missed 2 free throws with 1:30 left, and Hougton grabbed the rebound of the second miss.
“We missed the free throws and then the two last shots,” said Elk Grove coach Anthony Furman. “Sometimes you convert, and sometime you don’t. They withstood our third quarter when we had a 44-36 lead. They came back at the end of the quarter to get back in the game.”
The outcome put Prospect at 11-4 overall and 5-0 in the MSL East.
The game was befitting of a divisional co-leaders, as it saw 8 ties and 13 lead changes.
“It was a great a great game where I thought it would go down to the last two possessions of the game,” said Camardella. “Credit Elk Grove, too. This is a tough place to play in now because of the job coach Furman has done with his team.”
Houghton helped control the boards for Prospect in the first half with 9 rebounds.
“I knew we had to control the boards to win. If we took care of the boards, the guards would get the ball inside,” said Hougton. “We did not play well to start the game because of all the turnovers we had in the first quarter (9). But we kept our focus.”
“We’re halfway through the conference race, and we’re still in it at 4-1,” said Furman, whose team in 8-6 overall. “I was proud of the way we played tonight.”
Joell Melendez added 12 points and 5 rebounds to go along with Bryan Alcazar’s 9 points for the Grens. Amann had 6 rebounds to go with his 18 points.