Enright, Mundelein sprint past Warren

Mundelein junior Connor Enright can handle the hype. His teammates seem to be comfortable with the preseason hype surrounding this Mustangs boys basketball team as well and coach Matt Badgley doesn't see it as a problem.

"We don't talk about it," Badgley said. "It gets mentioned. It's people writing about it, but we don't get caught up in it."

But the one challenge Enright seems to be having from game-to-game, and yes, the Mustangs have only played two games, is what hair style will the talented, Drake-bound guard feature next?

Opening night, it was cornrows and braids. Tuesday night, as the Mustangs faced off with North Suburban Conference rival Warren as part of the Mundelein Thanksgiving Tournament, Enright featured more of a flowing 1970s hair look.

"I couldn't find a girl to braid it tonight," Enright said. "I guess I can just mix it up."

Enright and his Mustang teammates had no trouble mixing it up in the third quarter as they outscored the Blue Devils 15-5 in the period en route to a 58-43 victory. Mundelein jumps to 2-0 on the young season while Warren fell to 0-2.

"We just focused on talking and working together as a team," said Enright who scored all 10 of his points after halftime to go with his 3 steals and 7 assists. "We had to get back to turning up the pressure because that's what we do best on defense."

Mundelein closed a tight first half on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Jack Bikus (9 points) to take a 29-26 lead into the break.

In the decisive third quarter, Mundelein outscored Warren 11-1 over the final 4:56 to take a 44-31 lead. The key to that stretch was a putback dunk by Scottie Ebube and a long 3-pointer by Bikus. Ebube finished with 14 points on the night to go with 8 boards and 3 blocks.

"They came out with great defensive intensity (in the third quarter) and we didn't handle it well," said Warren coach Jon Jasnoch. "We tried to take the easy way out too many times and they shut us down."

The first half was much better for the Warren offense as senior Jason Langevin hit for all of his 14 points before halftime. His last bucket with 29 seconds left in the half knitted the game for the last time at 26 before the Bikus 3-pointer broke the tie.

"We talked about how we were coming off their screens defensively and making some adjustments," Badgley said. "You know last night our third quarter wasn't very good. Tonight it was."

Pacing the Mundelein offense in the first half was junior Trey Baker. Baker scored 10 of his co-team best 14 points in the first half.

"We know what each of our kids is capable of," Badgley said. "Last night Trey didn't shoot the ball well, but tonight he bounced back and played well for us."