Mundelein heads off Deerfield
It just seems right that Leavon Head wears a headband.
In fact, Mundelein’s senior point guard says it wouldn’t be a heady move, so to speak, to be without it.
Head started wearing a red headband after the Mustangs’ win over Stevenson in early February. A hit to the head during the game opened a large gash above his right eye.
The next day in practice, he used the headband to cover the gash.
“I wanted to protect (the cut), and I ended up playing pretty well in practice that day,” Head said. “Then, in our next game, we played Libertyville, and I had 20 (points). I went home and told my Dad that I was playing with a headband from now on.
“I’ve worn a headband ever since. I can’t play without my headband now. It’s all about the headband.”
On Wednesday night, it was also about hitting shots.
Head, sporting his red headband, of course, hit his when it mattered to lead Mundelein to a 50-43 victory over Deerfield in the semifinals of the Barrington sectional.
Head scored 10 of his 13 points, including 2 momentum-shifting three-pointers, in the third quarter when Mundelein turned a 1-point halftime lead (21-20) into an 8-point cushion heading into the fourth.
“Since February, we’ve had someone stepping up when we needed it,” Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. “And we got that again tonight.”
The second-seeded Mustangs improve to 29-4, which gives them the most wins in school history. More importantly, they advance into Friday’s sectional championship game.
Mundelein will face top-seeded Warren, which is 28-3 and rolled over the Mustangs in their two regular season North Suburban Conference Lake Division meetings by an average of 29 points.
“We just need to play as hard as we can and put two halves together,” Head said of Mundelein’s impending date with Warren. “We aren’t (intimidated). We want them. We want to play them.”
The Mustangs are hoping to be firing on all cylinders against Warren.
They weren’t quite able to do that against Deerfield, which wraps up its season with an 18-11 record.
Part of the reason Head’s performance was so valuable is that he picked up some major slack in the scoring department for Mundelein.
Center Ryan Sawvell, a Division I recruit who is headed to Evansville and is averaging 19 points per game, was harassed all night long by an aggressive Deerfield defense that triple-teamed him at every opportunity.
Sawvell scored only 7 points and was 1-of-11 from the floor.
He also spent stretches of the first half on the bench because he picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter.
Interestingly, the Mustangs’ other top scorer, Robert Knar, who finished with a team-high 17 points and iced the victory with a rebound putback off a missed free throw that gave the Mustangs a 47-41 lead with less than a minute to play, also got two quick first-quarter fouls. Like Sawvell, he too was forced to the sidelines for some unfamiliar extended bench time.
“I think this speaks to how much we’ve grown as a team this season,” said Sawvell, who found other ways to contribute, namely with 11 rebounds and 3 monster blocks. “If this game would have happened earlier in the season, it would have been a loss for us. We’ve been getting a lot more scoring out of other people. Leavon had some huge threes. He did a great job. ”
Guard Richard Knar also stepped up and hit 2 big first-half three-pointers to help fill the void. He finished with 6 points while teammate Sean O’Brien added 5 points.
For Deerfield, forward John Carney led the way with a game-high 24 points, including 4 three-pointers. He went 5-of-6 and scored 12 of his points in the first quarter to help the Warriors take a 12-4 lead into the second quarter.
“If you tell me Ryan Sawvell gets (7) points in this game, I’m going to tell you that we’ve got a chance,” said Deerfield head coach Bret Just, who also got 12 points from guard Joshua Schur. “I mean, I don’t know if I’ve seen a better player (while scouting) the last few weeks than Sawvell. Inside, outside, on the break, defensively, there’s a reason he’s a (Division I) player.
“I also thought that if we held them in the 50s, that we could win the game. But their guys did a good job of maintaining their poise. And you can’t keep a good team like that down all night. Early, we forced them to play all halfcourt. Eventually, they got some points in transition and that’s how they got going.”