Aggressive Lake Forest sinks Mundelein

Lake Forest boys basketball coach Phil LaScala was happy to get one injured player back, but was down two other players for the Scouts’ North Suburban Lake Division game against visiting Mundelein on Saturday night.

The short-handed Scouts prevailed anyway, overwhelming Mundelein 86-51.

“I thought we attacked right away,” said LaScala, whose Scouts improved to 16-4 and 6-3 in the NSC Lake.”We wanted to do that and get the ball inside early and attack inside the lane, and our kids did a good job of that.”

Forward Adam Wolf, who had been out all of December and most of January, returned to the Scouts lineup and scored 13 points. He started the Scouts’ first six games this season.

“It was nice to see him back,” LaScala said.

Meanwhile, Cal Miller and Jack Kauss were both out with stress fractures. The two starters could return for the Scouts’ next game Tuesday.

Lake Forest’s Evan Boudreaux led all scorers with 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds.

“Mundelein has always been a tough team and they tried to get us out of what we do,” Boudreaux said.

Noah Karras received a start and added 13 points for the Scouts. He stepped up with Miller and Kauss out. He ended the third quarter by sinking a half-court shot, extending the Scouts’ lead to 57-49.

“We had our second-leading scorer out in Miller, and Kauss is a great defensive player,” Karras said. “The guys off the bench had to step up. I had to play with intensity and play my role.”

Sam Nelson and Derek Parola led Mundelein (2-21, 0-8) with 12 points each, while J.T. Michalski added 10.

“We didn’t come out real hard in the first half,” Mundelein coach Corey Knigge said. “In the third quarter we didn’t shoot the ball well and they got spread out, but I thought we played pretty well in the third quarter.”