Winter? Not at Prospect, thanks to Summer
Winter is right around the corner but Summer was definitely still in form for Prospect's girls basketball team on Tuesday night at St. Viator.
The Knights' Summer Srodulski called her team's 54-47 nonconference triumph one of its biggest of the young season and the senior forward also had one of her best games.
Srodulski scored a season-high 14 points (9 in the second half) and hit 2 huge free throws with 18 seconds for a 6-point lead as the Knights went on to raise their record to 6-2.
"Realizing we had a mismatch in the post, we made an emphasis at half to feed the ball inside to Summer," said Prospect coach Matt Weber. "She did a great job of maintaining her position and executing down low. And when she got to the foul line, she executed (8-of-11)."
"I just got up there (free-throw line) with it in my head that they were going in, and they did," Srodulski said. "Our defense really helped us in this game. KK (Kathryn Keehn) and Abby Knott really did a nice job on their top players. I was proud of them. We helped each other, we rotated and we weren't coming off the corners. We all had each other's backs."
Backing Srodulski in scoring were classmates Andie Will (11 points), Macy Zei (10) and Katie Neal (8).
"A lot of different people contributed some big minutes off the bench, such as Katie Neil," Weber said. "Jessica Reizer (senior) hit a big 3-pointer and we made some clutch free throws. It was a great win."
Keehn's steal and layup gave the Knights an 11-3 lead after one quarter. The Lions' offense kicked into gear and outscored the visitors 16-3 in the final seven minutes of the second quarter to give the hosts a 17-16 halftime lead.
Knott's layup off a steal by Zei gave Prospect a 32-28 lead with 25 seconds left in the third quarter.
Reizer's big 3-pointer, 2 free throws from Srodulski and one from Will, who had some big assists and steals in the game, gave Prospect a 49-43 lead with just 1:10 left in the game.
Sophomore Mia Bergstrom led Viator (5-3) with 17 points followed by seniors Nora Ahram (16) and Joy Bergstrom (14).
"Nora did a great job, keeping her composure and getting into the lane for us," said Lions coach Jason Raymond. "I thought Prospect did an excellent job with the pressure defense they applied on us. They kind of made us into a one-sided team where individuals tried to create plays for themselves. We've got to work on that. It's early in the season and we have young players. We're trying to jell and play better as a team. Prospect played hard and they were the better team, They did a better job of playing together. They were connected and their defense really gave us problems."
Weber liked how his team worked as a unit.
"It's just really the idea of working as a team," Weber said. "We didn't have a drop-off when bench players came in and that's the sign of a good team. We knew Viator was a great team with great players, We knew we had to work hard on defense, help each other out, and be good teammates. This was fun to be a part of. This is a step in the right direction but we've got bigger goals than just winning a nonconference game on a Tuesday night."