Prospect's aim is true at Barrington

Shots.

Prospect made theirs and Barrington didn't Wednesday night. Subsequently, the Knights steadily outdistanced the Broncos for a 57-41 boys basketball regional semifinal win at Barrington, putting them into Friday night's title game against Fremd.

Prospect didn't know where to begin in handing out postgame plaudits. Coach John Camardella credited assistant Brad Rathe for the defensive game plan that allowed his team (15-11) to keep Barrington in check at 18-for-49 from the field.

"Our whole team calls him the 'D' coordinator," Camardella said. "He creates drills patterned for the other team. (Prospect's players) are going to do this whether the other team makes shots or not."

For Barrington, it was, "or not."

While Prospect pulled away from an 11-8 lead thanks to the shooting off the bench of Michael Ritchie and David Swedura, who combined for 15 first-half points on 6-of-9 shooting, Barrington was shooting 9 of 26 in the first half and didn't make a 3 or a free throw.

"We relied on our bench a lot this year," said high-scorer Frankie Mack (19 points), who shot 50 percent from the floor and was a perfect 7 of 7 at the line for Prospect. "We're able to go 11-12 deep."

And not give anything away.

"We feel like we've got seven or eight different starters," Camardella said.

But it was a second-quarter spree that summed up the game, and it came right after it seemed Barrington might get back in the game after Will Reinhard (10 points) scored twice on press-breaker layups.

Between those, though, Ritchie bombed home a 3, and then Mack drove for a 3-point play. Swedura scored twice, once on jet-driven dash to the hoop between defenders and again after having a ball scooped to him - by an opponent trying to save it from going out of bounds. Mack closed the half by feeding Grant Whitebloom for a nifty reverse layup at the horn.

That made it 28-18, and Barrington only got within single digits one time after that.

Mack, Swedura and Anthony Gardner put the game away at the free throw line in the fourth quarter while the Knights managed to stay even with the taller Broncos on the boards.

"Against that team, that's good," Camardella said, knowing they'll have to do it again against equally tall Fremd.

Barrington (14-14) could do little against Prospect's tight, rotating man-to-man, which clogged the middle against Barrington's height and somehow managed to still close out the Broncos' outstanding 3-point shooters.

"They're good," Barrington coach Bryan Tucker said of the Knights. "We went toe to toe with them. It wasn't our best shooting night."

"They were hitting shots. Got to give them credit," said Reinhard, a starter on last year's Mid-Suburban title team who called his three years on the varsity "a huge experience, a journey."

"We didn't capitalize," when Prospect suffered rare lulls on offense, said the 6-foot-5 forward. "Foul trouble really hurt us."

Now Prospect has to execute a similar formula against an equally tall, talented Fremd team that spreads its scoring around and shoots well.

"We just have to play our game," said Mack. "Rebound, play defense, get out on them, and run."