Stevenson 76, Mundelein 70 (OT)
Dylan Richter shoots free throws so quickly that you'd think he were handling a hot potato. He fires almost without hesitation, nearly as soon as the referee bounces him the basketball.
He's pretty good at the get-it-and-shoot-it routine, actually.
So maybe it wasn't so surprising to see the Stevenson senior come up with a steal and half-court buzzer-beater in a mere .6 seconds to end the third quarter.
That, after Richter had grabbed a defensive rebound and winged a full-court shot -- with five seconds left. The "desperation 3" landed short and rolled out of bounds.
"That's my own fans," Richter said with a sheepish grin. "They tricked me out on that one. I got (the rebound) and just chucked it down. I didn't even realize we had five seconds left. Then I kind of made up for it with that lucky shot at the half court."
Lucky for Stevenson against visiting Mundelein on Friday night, it had Richter.
He poured in 34 points and grabbed 22 rebounds -- both career highs -- as Stevenson pulled out a 76-70 win in overtime.
"He was my secret weapon tonight," Patriots coach Pat Ambrose joked. "I don't think they were ready for him."
Stevenson (16-7) hiked its record in the North Suburban Lake Division to 9-2, maintaining its share of first place with Zion-Benton, which also won in OT, 68-59 over Libertyville. Stevenson hosts Lake Zurich in its divisional finale next Friday night, while Z-B will try to avenge a loss to Lake Forest.
Stevenson's victory avenged a 58-51 defeat at Mundelein just before Christmas.
"We knew it was a big game," Richter said. "We were all hyped up coming into this. We needed to win this game to stay (atop) the standings for the (division) championship."
Mundelein (16-9, 5-6) received a career-high 26 points from senior guard Andy Rochon, and the Mustangs needed his performance, as Stevenson did a good job defensively on Navjot Singh and Ben Brust. Singh had 13 points, while Patriots ace defender Jeff Levitt held Brust to 5, including a 3-pointer at the end of OT.
Rochon was 9 of 14 from the floor and 8 of 11 from the foul line.
"His thing is getting everyone else shots," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. "So when he comes up with a game like this, people kind of get surprised, but we see it all the time in practice."
Richter's half-court shot to beat the third-quarter buzzer gave Stevenson a 47-45 lead. Mundelein used an 8-0 run midway through the fourth to go up 57-54, but the Patriots came back. They eventually forced overtime when Mikey Goldstein hit a right-wing shot with three seconds left.
Goldstein attempted only 4 shots all night.
"Mikey's not our best or most pure scorer, but he's a winner," Ambrose said. "He's a kid we want out there and he's a kid we don't mind having the ball."
Mundelein had several opportunities down the stretch to win but either didn't get a call or didn't get a bounce.
"All we had to do was stop them the last 12 seconds, and we didn't do that," Knar said. "That's why I was upset with us. OK, so we had a couple of calls that we thought could have gone our way. We have to be able to respond to that, and we didn't."
Richter opened OT with a three-point play and the Patriots never trailed after that. Richter had 8 points and 5 rebounds in the extra session.
He finished 12 of 22 from the floor. An 80-percent foul shooter, he was only 8 of 15. Dan Rebnord added 16 points and 6 rebounds for Stevenson, and Kevin Stineman had 9 points and 6 boards.
"Richter was killing us inside and he kept doing it," said Knar, whose team has lost four in a row.
"They're a real good team," Richter said of the Mustangs. "They push the ball, they go up-tempo. They'll tire you out."