Prospect takes charge in Charger Classic finale

Write tomorrow's headline.

Those were the three words Prospect girls basketball coach Ashley Graham printed in black letters on the white board in Knights' locker room at Dundee-Crown High School on Tuesday night.

Sure enough, the girls from Mt. Prospect made their biggest headline in 14 years of competing at the prestigious 16-team Dundee-Crown Charger Classic in Carpentersville.

In a battle of unbeatens, Prospect remained that way with a stunning 51-46 triumph over New Trier to avenge last year's 54-35 loss to the Trevians in the same championship game.

"I'm speechless," said Knights senior Taylor Will, whose game-high 21 points gave her 1,501 for her career, the most of any boy or girl to play at Prospect (Mike LaTulip is the boys leader with 1,484). "It's such a huge win for our program. A lot of people ranked us low and we were hoping to prove them wrong."

"Unbelievable," added Knights senior forward Catherine Sherwood , who added 15 points with 5 rebounds. "That is the only word I can use to describe this. We reached so many milestones.

"We defeated an undefeated team and defending champion of this tournament. We became the first Mid-Suburban East team to win it. The first Prospect team to win it . It's known as one of the best tournaments in the state and it proves to everyone that we are a team that should be feared."

Prospect fans feared not having Sherwood around for the second half when she injured her ankle going up for a rebound with 2:22 left in the first half. She left the floor with the assistance of teammates and retuned after half by walking gingerly back onto the floor.

But Graham was able to insert Sherwood into the game with 6:48 left in the third quarter and the Knights trailing 27-23.

"I heard it pop and it still hurts," Sherwood said after the game. "But I knew I had to get back into the game. I missed it last year (with a concussion). This is my senior year and I wasn't going to let that happen again. I couldn't hold back now."

And she helped the Knights (13-0) come back for one of their biggest regular-season wins in school history over traditional state power New Trier (14-1).

Trailing by as many as 9 points late in the second quarter, the Knights took their first lead of the second half on 2 free throws by Catherine Sherwood after a 3-pointer by Haley's Will (10 points, 2 steals) had made it 42-41 with under two minutes left.

"We didn't get super rattled when we were down," said Taylor Will said. "We handled it pretty well and stayed sound as a team."

New Trier gained the lead at 44-43 with 1:03 left on a 17-footer from Kathryn Pedi before Prospect took over for good when Taylor Will threw a perfect entry pass to a driving Sherwood for a layup and 45-44 lead with 42 seconds left.

Sherwood then grabbed the rebound on New Trier's missed shot and seconds later Taylor Will was fouled. The Brown recruit sank a pair of free throws for a 47-44 lead.

After a missed front end of the bonus by New Trier, a scramble for the rebound took place. A jump ball was called, with possession going to Prospect with 8.9 seconds left.

Haley Will made 2 free throws with 7.8 seconds left for a 49-44 lead.

A layup by Jeannie Boehm made it 49-46 with 1.6 second left. Taylor Will was fouled and added 2 free throws with 0.7 seconds left for the final margin.

Boehm, a highly- recruited 6-foot-3 junior center, finished with 20 points and 16 rebounds.

"Obviously, it was a big loss offensively losing Catherine for a while but defensively, too, because she was defending Boehm," Graham said. "Catherine didn't get to play last year so she wasn't going to miss this one. I don't know if you can ever contain Boehm. But we tried to front her and Catherine is very athletic and does a nice job with that."

"Fronting her was the game plan, and to get help behind her," Sherwood said. "Obviously she is going to score. Our goal was to slow her down She is one of the best posts in Illinois."

Prospect proved it's one of the best teams in Illinois.

"You've got to give Prospect a lot of credit," said New Trier coach Teri Rodgers, who like Graham (Sandstead) also starred in the D-C tourney when she played for Libertyville. "I really felt Taylor (5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals) took over the game. We had a hard time limiting her penetrations. We felt like we had defenders to stop her. We had our best on her."

Hannah Grott deserved credit for sparking the Knights' big rally in the fourth quarter by hitting a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 38-36 with 5:07 left. Brenda Kendziera (2 assists) also made it into the scoring column with her bucket that ended the first half at 25-20 in favor of New Trier.

"I was really proud of how we handled their defensive pressure in the second half," Graham said. "That's a great basketball team. The biggest thing about our kids is that they just believed in themselves even when we were down. They took that to heart and I'm really proud of them."