Boys' basketball's defense falters against Barrington

By Brian Thomas
Staff Writer
 

Fresh off their run to the championship game in Wheeling’s Hardwood Classic tournament, the boys’ basketball team hosted the Barrington Broncos on Tuesday night.

The Knights looked good early and led after the first quarter, 17-9. Theywere in control for most of the half until there was 5:47 left in the 2nd quarter, when Barrington went on a 15-0 run to take the lead into halftime, 31-28.

During the 15-0 run, senior Joe LaTulip said that the main problem was the Knights’ defense.

“We were leaving a lot of their guys open,” said LaTulip. “This gave them a lot of easy shots and layups and they capitalized off of it.”

Prospect couldn’t get back into the game after that and Barrington led the entire second half. Prospect ended up giving up a season-high 74 points to Barrington and they lost the game 74-62.

Coach John Camardella said that the big problem for the Knights was the team’s energy.

“I never felt like we were able to get in the flow tonight,” said Camardella. “Basketball is about execution and energy, and both were inconsistent tonight.”

“We just seemed unmotivated out there tonight.” said senior Jack Redding. It was not our night tonight. We had no communication and poor rotation on defense and that 15-0 run was our let-down. We were never able to pick it up after that.” 

Sophomore Mike LaTulip and his brother, Joe, led the Knights in points with 18 and 16, while Bryan Wegner scored a game high 24 points for the Broncos.

The Knights fall to 10-3 on the year and have now lost two games in a row, but they remain 3-0 in the conference and are getting ready for a big conference game this Friday at Wheeling.
“We have two days of practice before this game.” said Redding. Each day is going to be a battle and we have to improve defensively to get ready.”