Prospect secures at least a share of MSL East crown

Graduation.

Regardless of school or sport it can have a devastating effect on a program due to the loss of experience, leadership and talent and the possible inability to replace it.

This year's Prospect boys basketball squad provides a case study to those seeking to examine the extent that such an impact might have, or not have.

The Knights lost four starters from a 22-game winner that captured both the Mid-Suburban League East Division and overall MSL titles a season ago and started this season dropping 3 of their first 4 games.

But then the following week the defense of those championships began with their first divisional contest in which they prevailed on November 30.

And in the seven subsequent divisional games the Knights have had since they have been just as successful with their most recent a 72-43 win at Elk Grove Friday evening, earning them at least a share of their fourth straight MSL East crown and ninth in the last 12 years.

A win at Buffalo Grove next Friday would earn Prospect a ticket to host the Feb. 20 MSL championship game at Jean Walker Fieldhouse.

"It was about the ball not sticking against their zone, against their full-court press," Prospect coach John Camardella said of Friday's win. "I thought the way T.J. (Johannesen) and Sam (Murray) shot the ball out of the gate - they were hitting (shots) and they were sharing (the basketball). I thought the stat for us tonight was that we had 27 assists. I was proud of our guys."

The run that settled things came during the final 4:55 of the opening quarter of play after the Knights (13-10, 8-0) spotted the home team a 5-2 lead.

Beginning with a Jon Kreidler 3-pointer 20 seconds later, a 23-0 tear by the visitors would leave them up 25-5 at the end of the first.

It came thanks to a 7 of 13 performance from beyond the arc that featured a trio of 3s each by Prospect senior guards Murray (game-high 19 points) and Johannesen (18 points) during the run.

The Knights went on to shoot 10-for-22 from 3-point land for the entire first half, which they led 42-16 at the break.

Johannesen spoke of the key to Prospect's success being a belief in the total team concept.

"It's never just one guy who's scoring, we just take turns stepping up," Johannesen said. "Whoever is hot, we just focus on getting them the ball."

He also spoke of two contributory elements to their shooting prowess - confidence and rhythm.

"Confidence is big when shooting and if were taking the right shots - just rhythm shots off inside-out passes - those are high percentage shots for us and that's what were looking for," he said.

Senior guard Ryley Rathman (16 points) and senior center Ryne Singsank (13 points) paced the Grenadiers (5-18, 0-8) in the scoring column.

"Usually the runs happen against us in the second or third quarter. Give them all of the credit in the world," Elk Grove coach Nick Oraham said. "Johannesen and Murray had 9 of the 10 threes by halftime. That's their M.O. They're really good at making shots."

Camardella used the second half to give his squad opportunities to put different lineups on the floor that mixed reserves in with his starting five which leads to giving them valuable playing time as the regular season heads into the home stretch.

"You look at the flow of the game," Camardella said. "For example in this game with Elk Grove playing zone ... that's a different flow than if it was full-court press or man-to-man. When you playing against a zone where they were really sinking back for the most part, they turned us over a couple of times. We made sure that we cycled guys in slowly. We'll get some of our middle of the pack guys playing with our top guys because we want to give them some runs and then we'll have middle of the pack guys playing with some JV guys and the whole point is guys just excelling in their roles. The effort and the attention to detail that our juniors have given us this year in scout team, in prepping for teams, has been a really big bonus for this team this year."

A team that Johannesen feels is jelling at the right time.

"As a team our senior class has been playing with each other since sixth grade," Johannesen said. "We all know each other so well and the chemistry is always there with us so playing together is so easy for us."

Plus, being one win away from together in another MSL championship game.