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Mundelein battles past Zion-Benton to stay unbeaten

It's not a typical Monday night for boys basketball, but it doesn't matter when you have a couple of comparable teams in the North Suburban Conference going at each other. It really had the word battle written all over it from the start to the finish.

Playing on the road, Mundelein trailed most of the game until the Mustangs recovered from an 11-point third quarter deficit and then found a way to finish it with a 52-48 victory over Zion-Benton on Monday night.

The Mustangs remained unbeaten on the season at 9-0 and 3-0 in the NSC, while the Zee-Bees dropped to 4-4 and 1-2.

Stevenson transfer Trey Baker stood by his own name by pouring in five 3-pointers that included a pair of them in the fourth quarter from about 23 feet.

Baker finished with a career-high 22 points and 6 steals while Scottie Ebube dropped in 11 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and had 6 blocked shots. Connor Enright added 10 points, all in the second half, for the winners.

"It's something I've been working on over the summer to expand my range," Baker said. "I know I can hit them and my teammates know I can hit those. Even my coach trusted me to hit those at crucial times of the game. The other players put me in the right position to make the right plays."

Mundelein was down 36-25 after the Zee-Bees' Damontae Taylor (team-high 21 points) made a short jump shot with 4:28 left in the third.

But the Mustangs recovered with an 18-4 run, as Baker hit the back-to-back long range 3s that tied the game and put Mundelein ahead 43-40 with 4:50 left in the game.

Zion-Benton's Amar Augillard (17 points, 8 rebounds), knocked down a 3-pointer that put the Zee-Bees back ahead 46-45 with 3:35 left.

But then the Mustangs dictated the play in the final few minutes with a 7-2 closing run.

Enright hit a jump shot and a couple of free three throws and Baker dropped in 3 off 4 from the charity stripe.

Ebube was working hard on the defensive end with a couple of key blocks in the final minute.

"You just have to play hard," Ebube said. "In that second half, we picked up a lot of energy. We knew this game was going to be a hard one."

For Mundelein, this was a pretty good barometer of where it is heading into the holiday break.

"We knew all along Zion-Benton was a real good team," Mundelein coach Matt Badgley said. "They will be there down the stretch in this conference and be part of the top. We know that and coming into this we were fortunate to have something work to our advantage. It says a lot for our guys to focus on one possession at a time. We know that we can be able to do that. It helped us to chug along."

The Zee-Bees knew that this was going to be a good one and it would come down to the finish.

"It's a hard-fought North Suburban Conference game and I hope they are all like this," Zion-Benton coach Bob Worthington said. "The guys got up and down and played hard on both sides. So, it was what I expected. We had our composure and didn't lose it either way."

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