Brust, Mustangs clean up

Some athletes get funny about their numbers.

OK, most athletes.

There's superstition involved, tradition, too. Even luckiness, if you will.

So, who could have blamed Ben Brust Friday night if his game had been thrown off a bit when he was forced to make an emergency wardrobe switcheroo.

Early in the second quarter against visiting Carmel, Brust knocked up against someone and opened up a gash on his nose that he had gotten a few days ago against Grayslake Central. Blood smeared all over his No. 1 jersey.

IHSA rules state that, for health concerns, a player may not compete with a bloodied uniform.

Brust left the game, got his nose tended to and then left the gym so that he could change into a clean jersey.

He returned sporting jersey No. 55.

Maybe Brust has a new lucky number.

When Brust got back on the floor, he immediately kicked into high gear. He hit a baseline jumper within seconds. Then, he knocked down his next two shots, including a 3-pointer.

It got worse for Carmel from there as Brust went on to finish with a game- and season-high 35 points to help Mundelein breeze to a 75-44 victory in the nightcap of the Mundelein Thanksgiving Basketball Tournament.

The win is the first of the season for the Mustangs, who improve to 1-2. Carmel, in turn, drops to 1-2.

"I was on a mission tonight. I've never gone 0-3 before and I wasn't going to let it happen this year," said Brust, a 6-foot-2 junior guard whose stat line included 6 three-pointers _ five of which came after the jersey switch. Overall, he scored a total of 27 points as No. 55. "This is a turning point for us. If we play with that kind of intensity all the time, we can do good things this year."

And what about the new number? Where does that factor into the equation?

"I don't' know," Brust laughed. "All I know though is that once I put it on, I just sort of relaxed and I was ready to go.

"Maybe I should put (a permanent change to No. 55) up for debate and see what everyone things. (Laughing). I'll take a tally."

Mundelein extended its nine-point advantage at the end of the first quarter to 18 points by halftime by turning up the heat defensively.

The Mustangs pressured the ball all over the floor and Carmel had no answer for it. The Corsairs turned the ball over 16 times over the first two quarters alone.

"You just can turn the ball over like that," Carmel coach John Ryan said. "We have to do a better job of handling the pressure. Our kids weren't ready for that kind of pressure and intensity, and before we knew it, we were in trouble."

Mundelein also got double figures out of Ryan Sawvell and Kevin Barber, each of whom had 12 points. Barber also had 2 three-pointers.

"We had to get other guys involved, which we weren't really doing before," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. "We knew Ben (Brust) was going to score. It was who else is going to score? Today we had a mixture of a lot of guys and that helped us out a lot."

For Carmel, which is missing its best player - center Jack Baucus, who blew out his knee at the end of football season and sat under the basket in a wheelchair, only one player reached double figures. Connor Sexson had 10 points.