Jeff O'Brien's night kind of summed up Lake Zurich's evening as well. The 6-foot-2 junior had one big moment on Saturday night at home. He positively exploded into the air after a missed shot, and in one motion put the ball back in the hoop while being fouled. His Bears (2-7) were down 31-27 to visiting Prospect with three minutes to play in the third quarter.

"I just crashed the boards,'' O'Brien said. "And I got lucky it went in."

From that point on, however, Lake Zurich watched the Knights take over the game and post a 63-44 victory.

"We fell asleep on defense,'' O'Brien said. "They started dribbling penetration and got some easy layups."

O'Brien knocked down a pair of free throws to end Lake Zurich's scoring and finished with nine points. He was called for an intentional foul and accidentally knocked down a Prospect player late in the game.

"I was trying for the ball on that intentional foul,'' he said. "And I hit that guy, too."

What was hard to figure is how a 26-25 game in the third quarter turned into a runaway.

"It really snowballed,'' said Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher. "It was amazing how fast it got going."

For the first three quarter, it looked like anyone's game. O'Brien's 5-foot jumper gave the Bears its biggest lead of the game at 9-6 with three minutes to play in the opening quarter. Mirko Grcic (15 points) made a layup with two minutes left in the half. The Bears led 18-16 after that score and never led again.

Prospect had balanced scoring led by Terry Redding (19 points). Mike Latulip added 16 points.

Those 41 points surrendered in the second half was something new to the Bears.

"We had been pretty solid defensively before that,'' Pitcher said.

Also helping the Lake Zurich cause were Mike Boyd (6 points), Drake Orser (6 points) and Tyler Every (4 points).