Scoring depth lifts Mundelein in third-place game at Lake Zurich

It seemed a bit unusual for Mundelein juniors Conor Enright and Scottie Ebube to be without a point at halftime.

Both players were helping the Mustangs in other ways, however, in the third-place game of the Lake Zurich MLK tournament against the host school.

Up 24-10 at the half, despite the lack of offense from Enright and Ebube, Mundelein ran away with a 54-33 victory over Lake Zurich.

Trey Baker scored 8 of his game-high 17 points in the opening quarter for the Mustangs (16-3) and dropped in five 3-pointers. Ebube finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocked shots and 3 steals. Enright had 5 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds.

"I was really focused on defense," Ebube said. "Offensively, I knew I would post up and the points would come. Our team is so confident. Even though we lost to a couple of teams [recently, Stevenson and Glenbrook South], we know those teams are beatable."

Mundelein (16-3) had lost in the tournament semifinals on Saturday to Glenbrook South (17-3). Jack Bikus had 6 points and 4 assists against Lake Zurich (6-11).

"If was a nice win," Mundelein coach Matt Badgley said. "We were trying to do certain things just to get back on the rails a little bit and feel a little bit more comfortable. We know that we have [Lake Zurich] coming back in a few more days [Saturday] at the same place."

Mundelein scored the game's first eight points and led 12-6 after one quarter.

"We've gotten out to early leads before and destroyed [the leads]," Badgley said.

The Mustangs extended their advantge to 14 points by halftime and were up 40-23 by the end of the third quarter.

Lake Zurich assistant coach and former Bears star Mike Kolze ran the team with head coach Terry Coughlin missing the game due to illness.

Brady Orton led the Bears with 7 points coming off the bench. Henry Nagel added 6 points.

"It was cool and I wanted to have fun with it," Kolze said of his coaching opportunity. "It was different and I enjoyed it. I wish we would have played better and hit more shots, but Mundelein was a tough team. They made us work really hard for what we got. I thought we competed all game. We took good shots, but we just couldn't hit them. We just went cold, and that happens with this group sometimes. Against a team like Mundelein, that's tough to come back from."