High note for Lake Forest

The song blasting all night in the Lake Forest High School gym was “Under Pressure” by David Bowie.

It was a theme the entire game as the host Scouts jumped early on Mundelein and never let up, winning the North Suburban Lake opener for both schools 69-61.

A couple of statistics were telling to the game’s outcome: Mundelein (2-4, 0-1) committed 25 fouls to 15 for Lake Forest. This led to a huge disparity in free throw shooting, as the Scouts made 21-of-31 while the Mustangs shot just 6-of-15. This accounted for much more than the margin of victory.

“We have to stay out of foul trouble. We had too many guys sitting,” Mundelein coach Richard Knar said.

One of them was senior Sean O’Brien. The Mustangs’ leading scorer sat out for most of the second quarter after picking up his third foul midway through the first quarter.

Mundelein trailed 30-24 at the break and with 5:25 left in the third quarter, O’Brien picked up his fourth foul. Within two minutes, Lake Forest had increased its lead to 41-28 after Carter Bass (game-high 23 points) drilled a 3-point shot.

With O’Brien back in the game to begin the fourth quarter, Mundelein made its move. Repeatedly, O’Brien found senior forward Chino Ebube (team-high 19 points) in transition, lobbing alley-oop passes to the 6-foot-4 jumping jack, who slammed them home.

“We want to pick the tempo up and pressure,” O’Brien said, who finished with 17 points on 5-of-11 shooting. “Chino runs the floor, he’s got great hands. It’s always fun to play with a kid like that.”

When O’Brien stole the ball and finished with a lay up, it cut the Lake Forest lead to 57-53 with 2:33 left in the game. But a 7-2 run by the Scouts was capped by a Sam Downey (15 points, 6 rebounds) basket and put the game out of reach for the Mustangs.

Sophomore forward Evan Boudreaux had a double-double for the Scouts, who remain undefeated (5-0, 1-0).

“Our goal at the beginning of the year was to win the conference,” Bass said. “It gets our confidence up for the rest of the league.”

These two teams are scheduled to play again January 24 at Mundelein. So as Bowie sings in “Under Pressure”, the Mustangs will have one more chance to win the “last dance.”