Prospect survives Naperville Central

The Prospect girls basketball team survived a post-Christmas scare Friday morning, coming from behind in the fourth quarter to beat Naperville Central 54-47 in the opening game of the 32nd annual Charger Classic at Dundee-Crown.

Seniors Taylor Will and Catherine Sherwood led the Knights (10-0) with 17 and 15 points respectively. Senior Cierra Stanciel had 17 points for Naperville Centra (6-7) and junior Hannah Swarm added 15.

"That's a good basketball team," said Prospect coach Ashley Graham of the Redhawks. "They were ready to play and they played a good defense on us with a box-and-one. We haven't seen that very much."

Naperville Central led 43-35 going into the fourth quarter but Prospect went on a 11-1 run and took the lead for good 46-44 on 2 free throws from junior Brenda Kendziera with 3:59 to play. Ahead 50-47, the Knights sealed the win with 4 free throws in the final 14 seconds from sophomore Haley Will (9 points).

"Our fourth quarter was great," said Graham, whose team was 9 of 10 from the free throw line in the quarter. "We showed a lot of toughness down the stretch and hit our free throws when it mattered."

Sherwood had 9 rebounds and Taylor Will 8 for the Knights, who limited the Redhawks to 1-for-10 shooting in the fourth quarter. Sherwood scored 14 of her 15 points in the second half.

"We let them go inside to Sherwood a little too often," said Naperville Central coach Andy Nussbaum. "Taylor Will is the engine that makes them go and we tried to limit her some but she's a player. And for some reason we just got stale offensively in the fourth quarter.

"We're getting better. We're a 6-7 team that a lot of people don't want to play."