Prospect turns up the ‘D’
Prospect boys basketball coach John Camardella was so displeased with his team’s defensive performances in the Knights’ previous two games that he decided make defense a priority in his practice Friday.
“We went harder in practice (Friday) than we ever have the day before a game,” said Camardella, whose team gave up a combined 140 points in those two contests. “I reminded our guys that when we have ‘off’ offensive nights, we need something to trust and rely on. So we spent an hour and a half on defense. And it paid off well tonight.”
It wasn’t an ‘off’ offensive night for Prospect on Saturday in Rolling Meadows. But that didn’t stop the Knights from also producing a superb defensive effort in a 41-17 victory.
“It’s the best defensive effort we have had in years,” Camardella said. “We worked a lot out there tonight. I was happy for our guys because they needed a defensive effort like that.
“We switched well and kept them away from the basket. We also rebounded very well.”
Prospect (12-6, 6-0) held Rolling Meadows to just 5 field goals for the game while limiting the Mustangs to 16 percent (5-of-32) from the field and coming away with a 32-13 edge on the boards.
“We had a lot of energy out there tonight as team,” Prospect’s Danny Mack said. “It was a great team effort and we went hard after them.”
Prospect went hard to the boards to start the game, creating 5 second-opportunity baskets in the first quarter. That led to 11 of their 14 first-quarter points as they led 14-6 after one period.
From there, Prospect only turned up the defensive pressure, allowing just 1 field goal in each of the next three quarters.
“We went harder (Friday) and it paid off,” said Danny Thomas, who came off the bench to score 8 points and grab 5 rebounds. “We put a lot of effort into it and sweated a lot. We played like that tonight.”
Bobby Frasco led Prospect with 9 points. Tommy Flahaven had 8 points and Mike Houghton had 5 points and 6 rebounds.
Matt Dolan led Rolling Meadows (5-12, 2-4) with 6 points.
“I really don’t have an explanation,” Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich said. “We had the best week of practice last week that we had all year. We had a lot of open shots, we just couldn’t get anything to drop for us.”