Prospect earns impressive win over Elk Grove

After falling to Hersey Monday in Mid-Suburban East boys basketball action, host Prospect wanted to bounce back strong Tuesday night against Elk Grove.

And while the less experienced and outsized Grenadiers hung tough for the first half of the contest, the Knights started to take control of the game in the second half.

Six unanswered points on 3-pointers by Elk Grove sophomore Josh Mottley to end the second quarter kept the Grenadiers within striking distance as they only trailed 25-19 at halftime.

But Prospect (3-3, 3-1) really turned up the heat defensively in the second half as the Knights outscored Elk Grove 15-5 in the third quarter to take a commanding 40-24 lead entering the final quarter.

From there, Prospect wound up rolling to an impressive 53-26 victory over Elk Grove (0-3, 0-2) as the Grens could never get their offense back on the right track in the final 16 minutes.

"We're experimenting with different starting lineups, tonight was our fourth game in five days and in the last two and a half weeks we've only had two practices because we were shut down," said Prospect coach John Camardella, whose team has a rematch with Hersey Friday night on the road. "We played really well tonight, we had great senior leadership, and now we have to go into Hersey again on Friday."

Full-court defensive pressure led to numerous Elk Grove turnovers, including an outside hoop by Prospect's Owen Schneider for the Knights' biggest lead at 34-19 early in the third quarter.

A 3-pointer by Elk Grove senior Brandon Burns (game-high 14 points) cut the gap to 34-22 moments later. But the Knights outscored the Grens 6-2 the rest of the period, and they were never seriously threatened after that point of the game.

Prospect's very balanced team scoring effort was led by senior Gary Moeller with 8 points and teammate J.T. Adams with 6 points. Senior Chase Larsen had 5 points and 5 rebounds for the Knights while Luke Cwidak had 5 points and 4 rebounds. Senior Ryan Sagendorph, Colin Votzmeyer, and Schneider all chipped in 4 points. Mottley wound up with 6 points.

"I thought the effort was great tonight, and we're going to need that against Hersey," said Sagendorph, whose team started five seniors to only one senior starter for Elk Grove. "I think we can bounce back (against Hersey), and we're going to have to close on them defensively and make them drive more."

Besides tenacious defense, Prospect also dominated the boards with a 39-23 rebounding advantage over Elk Grove in the contest.

"I think they (Hersey) start four guys who are 6-foot-4 or above," added Camardella, whose team outscored the Grens 13-2 in the fourth quarter to win going away. "So we have to keep their guys moving because it's very tough to get into the lane against them."