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Proportional production as Prospect clips Conant

Scoring balance was at its best for Prospect's girls basketball team on Thursday night in the third round of the York Thanksgiving tournament.

The Knights' top six scorers ranged from 5 to 11 points and they never trailed in a 54-32 win over Conant.

Junior Jessica Kowalczyk led the way with 11 points, followed by Ashley Adams (10), Emily Frasco (8), Sara Biesterfeldt (7), Margherite Pettenuzzo (6) and Stephanie Kowalczyk (5), who also had 3 assists.

"That's what we are fully capable of," said Prospect coach Gabrielle Lovin, whose team finished 2-1 in pool play of the eight-team tourney in Elmhurst.

"If we share the ball, and they stop one of our girls, someone else is going to step up and take that role as scorer. I think that is where we're going to be able to attack certain teams and be consistent throughout the season."

Consistent scoring has sure been the way for Jessica Kowalczyk in her first week of varsity action. The 5-foot-6 guard had 9 and 8 points in the first two games this week.

"Jessica has been playing well defensively and offensively," Lovin said. "She did a great job last season on the junior varsity team providing leadership and now she's done a very good job transitioning to the varsity level."

The Knights' transition game helped them build their first-half lead.

A steal and layup by Frasco (4 rebounds, 2 assists) made it 10-4 and moments later Frasco was on the back end of a fast break for another layup and 12-4 lead.

Back-to-back fastbreak layups by Biesterfeldt made it 19-9 early in the second quarter before a 3-pointer by Jessica Kowalczyk (4 rebounds, 2 assists) extended the lead to 24-9.

A nice inside move by Adams resulted in layup with just over three minutes left in the third quarter to give Prospect a 30-18 lead.

But the Cougars (1-2), who had never led in the game, got back to within 30-23 on a 3-pointer from Taylor Cyr and a fastbreak layup by Lauren Murphy.

Lovin called for a timeout and the Knights came back to finish the quarter on a 7-0 run sparked by Jessica Kowalczyk's long drive to the basket for a layup and a steal and layup by Adams.

"We just cleaned up our defense and played together more," Jessica Kowalczyk said. "Its feels good to get another win. It was fun. We were playing as a team and really working together."

"They came out of that timeout and played like the team they can be," Lovin said. "They had the intensity on offense, the intensity on defense and they were sharing the basketball."

Conant was led by juniors Abbey DiSalvo (12 points) and Hannah Shulman (6 points). Murphy and Cyr had 5 apiece.

"We were dealing with some adversity," said Conant coach Deirdre Naughton, referring to missing two starters from a year ago in Ania Baker (ankle) and Amanda Klingsporn (lacrosse tournament). "People are playing very different roles right now so it will take some time to get used to that."

Naughton hopes to have Baker back by Christmas.

Cyr was seeing her first action of the season returning from an ankle injury.

"We fought back from when we were down," Naughton added. "That was great, especially with this group that has some players getting used to new roles or they're just new to the varsity. I'm proud of that little run they made in the third quarter."

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