Libertyville gets it done against Mundelein
Considering his "play every minute like it's your last" mentality, Ben Kimpler absolutely, positively was going to try to dunk the basketball when he got an uncontested chance in the fourth quarter.
He did. Barely.
Never mind that late in the third quarter the athletic 6-foot-6 junior rolled his right ankle leaping for an offensive rebound against Mundelein's pesky Mustangs.
"That was the weakest thing I ever tried to put down," Kimpler said with a laugh of his dunk. "I tried jumping off with my right foot and (the ankle) just gave out."
Libertyville wasn't fretting about style points after its 68-51 home win Friday night. The North Suburban Lake victory evened the Wildcats' record at 7-7 (2-3 division), while dropping Mundelein to 1-14, 0-6. Libertyville was happy to leave its gym with a win after committing 21 turnovers.
"You never apologize for winning, even if you played sloppy like we did," Wildcats coach Scott Bogumil said. "We weren't pleased that we turned the ball over so much, but (Mundelein) had a lot to do with that. They played really hard."
Taking advantage of a Mundelein team that didn't start a player taller than 6 feet 1, 6-10 Joe Borcia scored 15 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and blocked 3 shots to lead Libertyville. Conor Peterson also scored 15 points, while Kimpler's active night included 12 points, 9 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocked shots.
Kimpler's 8 first-quarter points helped the Wildcats build a 17-10 lead.
"We always say he's a mean guy on the court and the nicest kid off it," Bogumil said with a laugh of Kimpler, a three-sport athlete who recently received a football scholarship offer from Toledo. "He gets mad at everybody. ... He's just got that edge to him. Which is what you find in great players, in any sport."
Paul Steinhaus had 9 points, including a pair of third-quarter 3-pointers, for Libertyville.
Kevin Marcotte led Mundelein with 11 points and 10 rebounds. When Tyler Olson (7 points, 4 steals) fed Marcotte for a fastbreak layup with 3:25 left in the second quarter, the Mustangs were within 24-20.
"I thought we really pushed the tempo," Marcotte said. "For the most part, we were attacking the glass pretty well. (Libertyville) is big, so you're going to give up some offensive rebounds, but I thought we really got under there and battled. Even our guards were in there rebounding."
A 3-pointer by Jabari Quigley (7 points) stretched Libertyville's lead to 27-20 and back-to-back layups by Borcia helped the Wildcats go into halftime up 33-25.
Libertyville then started the third by scoring the first 7 points. The Wildcats had a 10-0 run later in the quarter that extended the lead to 50-29 with less than a minute left.
"The first seven minutes of the third quarter killed us," Mustangs coach Corey Knigge said. "We came out of the locker room like we were OK with being down just eight. We were like satisfied with being close and, 'Well, let's just get this second half over with and go home.' That just grinds my gears."
Knigge was more positive about the play of Marcotte and senior guard Malik Doby (3 points, 4 boards).
"We can't have (just) Kevin Marcotte competes and Malik Doby competes," said Knigge, whose Mustangs also received 11 points off the bench from Jake Parmley. "We got to have all the guys compete. It's got to be a collective effort."