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Prospect adjusts, manages to hold off Buffalo Grove

With Prospect forced to play everybody a little out of their usual roles, everything got a little out of whack.

And then it almost got out of control when Buffalo Grove's boys basketball team cut a 42-27 fourth-quarter Prospect lead to 48-46 and had a chance to tie as time expired.

But Prospect held on for a 49-46 Mid-Suburban East win at the Jean Walker Fieldhouse as both teams evened their division records at 1-1.

It was Zach Fricke's trio of consecutive 3-pointers, plus one from Jack Vaselaney, that got BG back in the game. But Prospect strapped its defensive posture back on and didn't allow a good look as a Colin Calcagno buzzer-beater attempt to tie the game was off target.

Until then, it had been all Prospect (5-4 overall). The Knights were playing without injured guard Antonio Gardner, which forced coach John Camardella to start a taller lineup with Grant Zellmer up front. That pushed usual forward Frankie Mack to guard and left usual two guard David Swedura to handle point duties on his own.

And it worked. Perfectly. A usually sharpshooting BG team (4-3 overall) had trouble generating clean looks at the basket as the 6-foot-5 Zellmer, along with 6-5 Michael Ritchie and now Mack at guard all found themselves defending shorter, deadeye shooters. Through three quarters, BG shot 9 of 28 from the floor and 4 of 11 on 3-pointers. That included three by Calcagno, which kept the Bison's sliim comeback hopes alive, especially after Matt Szuba opened the fourth with a jumper for a 15-point lead.

It was indicative of Prospect's play all night - efficient on offense, suffocating on defense.

"It's the makeup of the team," said Camardella, in praise of everyone in shifted roles. "Zellmer and (Grant) Whitebloom both did great jobs."

Both had key 3-pointers while Zellmer harassed BG shooters and super-sub Whitebloom hit a crucial fourth-quarter free throw.

Swedura, in particular, was out of his role, having to play more at point than usual.

"I knew I was going to have the ball in my hands most of the time," he said. But still, he "just let the game come to me," he said, instead of forcing things. That paid off with a pair of open looks that he buried for second-quarter 3-pointers and slashes to the basket rewarded by slick feeds from Szuba and Mack for layins in the third and fourth quarters.

But when Mac Camardo converted a Calcagno feed to make it 48-46, Swedura subsequently knocked down 1 of 2 free throws to force BG to try to find what would be an unavailable clean look for a game-tying 3 as time expired.

"We turned up our defensive pressure," in the fourth quarter, said Buffalo Grove coach Keith Peterson. But he acknowledged the otherwise game-long defensive clamp the Knights squeezed on his Bison.

"That's exactly what happened. We had to make the extra pass," when open looks didn't materialize. Still, "The guys kept fighting," he said, pleased with the effort.

So was Camardella, but, with a week off before their next game, "We need a solid week of practice," he said.

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