Christie, Rolling Meadows take down Prospect
Friday night's Mid-Suburban East boys basketball clash with Rolling Meadows at Prospect's Jean Walker Field House was some old-fashioned basketball at its best.
A standing-room-only crowd witnessed Rolling Meadows holding on against an up-and-coming Prospect team 65-60.
The Mustangs' Max Christie filled the stat sheet with 25 points 10 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots.
Rolling Meadows (7-2, 3-0) had strong support from Daniel Sobkowicz, Jonah Ogunsanya, Sean Nolan, and Orlando Thomas.
"They had a bunch of other guys banging in shots tonight," said Prospect coach John Camardella. "We got shots we wanted but they weren't going in in the first half."
Sobkowicz and Ogunsanya backed up Christie with 12 points.
The Knights (4-5, 1-2) received double-figure scoring from Matt Woloch (17 points), Owen Schneider (14), Brian Dini (12) and Marco Shaw (12) in staying close through out the contest.
"The difference between last year's team and this year's team is that he have more scoring depth," said Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich. "We're more ready for the different defenses we see."
In a back-and-forth first quarter the Mustangs took the lead for good at 12-11 on Christie's 3-pointer with 30 seconds left in the frame.
Rolling Meadows would lead 15-11 at the end of the quarter but runs that the Mustangs had would be countered by the Knights.
"Sean brought toughness to the inside game," said Katovich of Nolan. "He stepped up his game. He scored and grabbed big rebounds. When he was in there he settled us down."
Nolan scored all six of his points in the first half and was strong on the boards in the second half, grabbing all five of his rebounds.
"I bring that football mentality to my game," said Nolan. "I'm not a scorer but I do what I can to fill my role. This was huge for us and for me winning my last game at Prospect."
Christie scored 6 points, and Sobkowicz along with Ogunsanya each scored 4 points in a third quarter that saw the Mustangs use a 14-8 run to lead 46-31 with 2:34 left in the quarter.
Prospect's Marco Shaw hit a 3-pointer that seemed to get the Knight going with 27 seconds left in the quarter.
"Schneider and Shaw really game up with big points for us in the fourth quarter," said Camardella.
With 1:38 left in the game, Prospect trailed 62-53 when Matt Woloch came up with several big plays.
Schneider missed the back end of a two-shot free throw but alertly Woloch came away with the rebound in the corner, drove to the basket and scored. to cut the lead to 62-56. Woloch then stole the ball to score with 1:16 left to make it a 62-58 game.
Christie hit 1 of 2 free throws with 51 seconds left before Schneider scored with 16 seconds to go. Schneider, who missed the free throw on the 3 point play attempt recovered the miss.
Shaw, whose crowd thrilling 3s kept the Knights in the game, saw his attempt hit the side of the rim. Thomas corralled the rebound, was fouled and made 2 free throws with four seconds left for the Mustangs to secure the win.
"Prospect played us well," said Christie. "My hat is off to them, they played really well. People need to realize that we have a lot of depth. If they want to triple team me then we have players who can shoot the 3s from the corners. It's an asset that we have the depth that we do."