Prospect puts it all together
Prospect’s girls basketball team may have gone into its Mid-Suburban East opener undefeated on Tuesday night, but that was the least of its concerns.
“It’s very nice being undefeated but that isn’t one of goals,” said junior forward Catherine Sherwood. “Our goal is to the best we can be.”
Well, they sure seemed to accomplish that goal.
In what Knights coach Ashley Graham called the “best-executed game plan” she’s seen as a high school coach, Prospect built an 18-6 lead after one quarter and never looked back in a 54-42 victory over Hersey at the Ken Carter Gymnasium.
And the win came against a Hersey team (7-1, 0-1) that was also undefeated.
“We knew they were a very good team and had a bunch of good young players,” said Knights junior guard Taylor Will, who scored a game-high 23 points while Sherwood tossed in 16.
“I’ve got to hand it to them (Hersey). They play good defense. They were very good at putting pressure on us.”
The Knights (8-0, 1-0) reciprocated and used their 2-3 zone to limit the Huskies, who had been scoring 68.6 points per game.
“Their defense was aggressive enough, and ours was not,” said Hersey coach Mary Fendley, whose team was led by junior Annie Korff (10 points), freshman Claire Gritt (9) and senior Renee Poulos (8).
“So far, offense hasn’t been a problem for us,” she added. “Every game we’ve had someone step up and hit shots. But we just didn’t click.”
The Knights were clicking from the get-go, getting a lot of points in transition.
A 6-0 run that included a 3-pointer from freshman Haley Will (9 point) and a bucket and free throw by Sherwood gave the visitors a 13-4 lead.
Sherwood and the Wills combined for all the Knights’ points in the first 12 minutes of the game.
Prospect junior Christina D’Anza chipped in her 4 points in the second quarter and senior teammate Mallory Gonzalez drove from the top of the lane to the basket for a layup which put Prospect ahead 32-15 with 1:14 left in the first half.
The Knights didn’t let up in the second half, getting their biggest lead at 49-29 when Taylor Will drove for layup with 4:35 left in the game.
“We worked a lot on breaking their press in practice and that helped,” said Taylor Will, who also handed out 5 assists. “This game gives us a better outlook on the season, letting us know we can play with the strong conference teams.”
“Our coach gave us a ton of specific things she wanted us to do,” Sherwood added. “And I thought we had our 2-3 zone going pretty good.”
Graham liked how her players stuck to the philosophy of the game plan.
“We wanted to be aware of their shooters and their screens,” said the second-year coach. “We worked for three days on trying to beat their press, and the kids did a great job at that.
“We were extremely assignment-correct, and I could not be more proud of them for their execution of the game plan.”