Mundelein staves off Libertyville
Mundelein played one of its best first halves this season. It was so good that Libertyville found itself looking up at the scoreboard seeing itself down 21 points.
Most teams would have folded the rest of the way, but not the Wildcats as they collectively clawed back and actually took the lead late in the fourth quarter.
But Mundelein responded by scoring the final 8 points and pulled out a 55-48 victory over visiting Libertyville in a North Suburban Conference boys basketball matchup on Friday night.
Conor Enright led the Mustangs (11-6, 2-4) with 18 points, Scottie Ebube added 16 with 11 rebounds and a couple of blocked shots and Andrew Gonzalez chipped in with 12 points. Josh Steinhaus led the Wildcats (8-8, 2-3) with 16, Jackson Watson added 13 and Brian Wilterdink dropped down 11.
"Absolutely, a good game," Mundelein coach Matt Badgley said. "I thought we played about as good as we could've played in the first half. Then, Libertyville turned around and did the same thing to us in the second half. I think we let (Libertyville) get open a little easier than I wanted to see. They just knocked down shots. We just got our composure and got relaxed (at the end). To the benefit of getting relaxed, we got a little more patient. We were hustling and hurrying a little bit too much. All I ever ask the kids to do was to compete and it takes the thinking process away. We were competitive and that's what we're asking."
Libertyville worked its way back from that huge deficit and tied the game a couple times early in the fourth quarter.
The Wildcats, for the first time, took the lead at 48-47 on a Steinhaus 3-pointer with 3:28 left. But after a missed shot by the Mustangs. Sam Eddy, who hit a 3-pointer about a minute earlier, came up with a steal off the Wildcats' rebound and made an immediate short jump shot that put Mundelein up for good at 49-48 with 3:20 remaining.
"Midway through the fourth quarter, my coaches had the trust in me to finish off the game," said Eddy, who had all off his 6 points in the final minutes. "It gave me the confidence to help my team get the victory. I knew our team needed a spark towards the end, I just thought hitting that three and coming up with the steal was a way to finish off the game."
The Mustangs went on and scored the next 6 points over the remaining minutes to close out the victory.
"I knew we had to stay composed and stay together playing our game," said Enright, who hit some timely 3s and free throws in the final quarter. "Hitting the big shots was huge. It got our team going and got the crowd fired up."
Mundelein started the game strong and had a 13-8 lead at the end of the first eight minutes.
The Mustangs went on a 19-3 run in the second quarter and led 32-11 after Jack Bikus made a free throw with 2:03 left.
But the Wildcats pulled together a two-minute run and outscored the Mustangs 9-1 with the benefit of Wilterdink scoring on consecutive 3-point plays on layups that left Libertyville down 33-20 at the break.
Libertyville kept its momentum going and intensity in the third quarter, outscoring Mundelein 15-5 and trailed 38-35 going into the final eight minutes.
"This is what this team does and it's an NSC game and this was a type of game that you would expect," Libertyville coach Brian Zyrkowski said. "I thought the first half we just came out cold and we're a good shooting team. For some reason tonight, we just didn't shoot well. But our guys just fight and I feel bad for our guys that they just didn't pull it out. After we took a lead after being down by 21 our energy level was so phenomenal. These are the types of games like our last game (beating Grant 39-36) that we learned a lot about ourselves. In this one, we learned a lot more. The way we played from the second quarter on was a team that can do a lot of damage for the rest of this year and is a team that can be dangerous."