Saratoga News

Photograph by Lea Tauriello

Ami Forney of Prospect goes up for a basket in the CCS finals against St. Ignatius. The Panthers ended up losing by a bucket to finish second in Division III.

Prospect ends up second

Panthers lose in CCS finals

By Dick Sparrer

John Melvin knew what his Prospect Panthers were capable of.

After all, the Panthers had only lost to two teams all season, and both of them were seeded No. 1 in respective divisions of the Central Coast Section playoffs.

So when Prospect picked up the No. 1 seed in CCS Division III, Melvin had every reason to believe that his Panthers could live up to that ranking.

And they almost did.

The Panthers won their way into the CCS finals before losing a 61-59 heartbreaker to St. Ignatius.

The loss left Prospect 23-4 for the year, but it didn't finish off the season for the Panthers. They'll take that impressive record on to the Northern California tournament this week.

And you've got to believe that Prospect's record is impressive. The only losses the Panthers have suffered this season have been to CCS finalists.

Prospect was 12-0 and won four tournament championships in the preseason, then entered the rugged Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

The Panthers lost twice to ultimate league champ Mitty. The Monarchs went on to win the CCS Division I title with a 63-45 win over Monta Vista last week.

Prospect split with Presentation before finishing a notch ahead of the private Catholic school in the league standings. Presentation went on to meet Homestead for the CCS Division II championship, losing a tough 48-43 nod.

Like Mitty in Division I and Presentation in Division II, Prospect was the No. 1 seed in the CCS Division III tourney, and the Panthers proved the seeding committee right with wins over Harbor (61-36) and Carlmont (53-43) to open the tournament.

But the Panthers ran into a pack of Wildcats in the finals and, despite a solid second-half comeback, lost by two.

"They other team wanted it more, from minute one," Prospect coach John Melvin said after the loss. "You've got to hand it to them."

The Panthers were down by nine after a period and by 13 at intermission. But they blitzed SI 17-9 in the third and cut the gap by three more in the fourth, only to come up a bucket short.

Prospect actually took the lead in the fourth but couldn't hold on. Sixteen missed free throws proved costly for the Panthers.

Sophomore star Ami Forney poured in 23 points to lead all Prospect scorers in the game. Kristie Carlquist, Kim Fujii and Shelley Kurose added nine points each for the Panthers.

"Kim Fujii really stepped up and had the game of her life," Melvin said of the 5-foot-1 senior guard. She had four assists to go with her nine points and she was 4-for-4 at the free-throw line.

"She did what a point guard is supposed to do," Melvin said.

Megan Sainsbury had five points, Lyndsey Najima three and Theresa Nguyen one. Najima and Fujii each hit three-pointers.

A game earlier, Forney and Sainsbury had the hot hands for Prospect in a 53-43 semifinal win over Carlmont.