Local team winning close

Nick Christensen

Monday, July 25, 2005 | 9:26 a.m.

Maybe it's just some ploy to show prospective college coaches how they respond in clutch situations, or maybe it's just the lack of depth on their team.

But the Las Vegas Prospects, the local all-star team competing in this week's Adidas Super 64 tournament, keep letting the competition claw back into games, and each time, the margin gets closer and closer.

In going 3-0 in pool play, the Prospects typically put up big numbers in the first half, stalled early in the second half but held on for a win.

But as they headed into the Super 64 tournament Sunday, their grip on the early-game lead got a little looser.

On Sunday afternoon at the auxiliary gym at Desert Pines, a 14-point lead almost gave way completely to the Indiana Elite 17's.

"We play a good first half, we always come out strong," Prospects guard Marcus Lawrence said. "But in the second half we come out kind of flat. Coach says we can't do that now. We're getting too deep into the tournaments, and the other teams are too good."

Lawrence and forward Andre McFarland combined for 27 points in the Prospects' 59-50 win against Indiana on Sunday, with center Keith Olson adding eight. Davell Jackson, Billy White and Luke Babbitt all had six points.

The Prospects led 39-25 with about 10 minutes left in Sunday's late game against Indiana, but the group from the Hoosier State relied on depth and size to get back into it.

Prospects coach Anthony Brown, meanwhile, was left with a seven-man rotation for most of the first half after White rolled his ankle. In the second half, White recovered but Jackson got in foul trouble, leaving Las Vegas with a very short bench.

The team is already playing without all-state guard P'Allen Stinnett, who is recovering from a meningitis infection he suffered last month. And Lawrence is playing through the pain of a calf injury he suffered last week when an opponent kneed him in the back of his leg.

"We're doing an eight-man rotation and trying to get subs in there," Brown said. "We've got some young fellas, and we're trying to get them some experience. But we're making it exciting for the whole team."

And everyone else, too.

The Prospects were bailed out Sunday by Indiana's poor shot selection in the final two minutes, coupled with clutch baskets by Jackson, Babbitt and Lawrence.

"We're like family," said McFarland, an all-state forward from Durango. "We're just coming together and playing together. Everybody knows what everybody can do, having played each other and seen the other teams we've played."

But what about that now-typical early second-half slump?

"I notice it and we try to tell the younger cats to step up," McFarland said. "They feel like they get the lead so they can coast to the win. I know these teams are going to keep on fighting."

Now among the final 16 teams in the Super 64, the Prospects' toughest test yet was this morning, when they were slated to face the Playaz Basketball Club. The Playaz, a high-coring club from New Jersey, feature guard Wayne Ellington and forward Gerald Henderson.

Ellington has committed to North Carolina; Henderson will play up Tobacco Road at Duke.

Brown said he thinks his team still has an advantage going into today's competition - although he said that before he knew who his team's competition was.

"It's good for them to come home and rest up," he said. "You get kids kinda go out on the Strip. It's always great to sleep in your own bed - it's different. We're just going to come out and do what we've been doing."

The winner of the Prospects-Playaz game will play at 2:20 p.m. at Eldorado in the Super 64 quarterfinals. The winner of that quarterfinal goes on to play at 6:20 p.m. at Desert Pines.

The Super 64 championship game is Tuesday morning at Cox Pavilion, and the Super 64 winner will play the Main Event champion on Tuesday night at Cox.