By Brian Thomas
Sports Editor
The boys’ basketball team had won 24 consecutive MSL East games going into Friday night. They were going for their 25th consecutive win at Buffalo Grove, but they came up short. Buffalo Grove was the last MSL East team to hand Prospect a loss, all the way back in December 2007.
“It was a streak to be proud of,” head coach John Camardella said. “A lot of hard work was put into it over the last few years.”
In the first quarter, it went back and forth between Prospect and Buffalo Grove. They were both tied at the 2:36 mark, but then Buffalo Grove closed out the quarter on a 13-4 run. Buffalo Grove led 28-19 at the end of the first quarter.
Buffalo Grove led for the rest of the game from the 2:36 mark. Their lead was as much as 17, when they led 44-27 in the second quarter.
Prospect never quit though. Prospect got the deficit to as close as two, after a three-pointer by senior Kevin Matkovic. The score was 47-45, Buffalo Grove, with 2:27 left in the third quarter.
After that, Buffalo Grove went on a 15-2 run at the end of the third and start of thefourthquarter. Prospect could not handle the run and was not able to come back from it, 74-62.
“I’m happy with the way we responded and fought throughout the game,” Camardella said. “But in the third we had way too many empty possessions. We have to be able to put some points on the board. We also can’t give up that many points in a game.”
The Knights record is now 15-5 and their MSL East record is now 7-1.
In the game, Prospect hit nine three pointers and five of them were hit by sophomore, Mike LaTulip. LaTulip went 4-4 from three in the first quarter to keep Prospect in the game. LaTulip finished with a game-high 29 points.
Despite Buffalo Grove not being able to stop LaTulip, Prospect could not stop senior Kevin Mulligan. Mulligan scored 27 points on the night.
“Mulligan is one hell of an athlete,” Camardella said. “We tried a lot of things to stop him, but the main thing was that our help defense was not there tonight.”
There is good news for the Knights. Senior co-captain Joe LaTulip will be back in the starting line-up for the Knights in their next game on Tuesday at home against Evanston.
