Boys Basketball: Prospect holds off Buffalo Grove

Updated: January 6, 2012 10:24PM

Not willing to let Illinois-bound Mike LaTulip beat it on his own, Buffalo Grove used a box-and-one to harass the Prospect star for most of their Mid-Suburban East game on Friday night.

But Prospect has more weapons than just LaTulip. Brad Reibel (15 points, eight rebounds), Kevin Somogy (13 points, seven rebounds) and Devin O’Hara (10 points, five rebounds) picked up the slack to lead the Knights to a 68-53 Mid-Suburban East victory over the Bison.

LaTulip finished with 27 points to lead all scorers, with 14 of those coming in the final period.

“We’ve seen every sort of defense this season and it was just something we had to learn how to handle,” Prospect coach John Camardella said. “We weren’t expecting box and one, and it took us awhile to get going tonight.

“Brad did an outstanding job for us and Devin came off the bench and played a great role down low. Our forwards have to keep coming hard when they guard Mike like that and I felt good about all the contributions we got tonight.”

Prospect (9-5, 3-1) outrebounded Buffalo Grove 42-26 on the night and made 27 of 32 free-throw attempts as three Bison guards fouled out trying to contain LaTulip.

“We did a good job staying in LaTulip’s pocket all night, but they killed us on the glass,” Buffalo Grove coach Ryan O’Connor said. “The second half, we just didn’t rebound the ball well and they did a good job getting second and third chances.”

Buffalo Grove (5-10, 1-3) cut the deficit to five on two occasions early in the fourth quarter, but LaTulip finally shook loose. With 5:12 remaining, he hit a deep three-pointer to extend the lead to eight. After Somogy made four free throws, LaTulip hit another three and a close battle turned into a 20-point game in less than three minutes time.

“He’s great because he can score in so many different ways,” Reibel said. “With what he does at the line and how teams guard him, it makes it that much easier for the rest of us. There were times in the first half where I had six feet of space because of how they trail him.”

Luke Potnick had 18 points to lead the Bison, while Sam Wacker chipped in 14 points and seven boards in a losing effort.

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