Kunz, Bears come up big
Lake Zurich senior Danny Coleman has been watching his neighbor and teammate Brandon Kunz play basketball since the first grade. So when Kunz put together a record-setting performance in the Bears' North Suburban Lake road contest at Mundelein on Saturday night, it didn't surprise Coleman at all.
"We have been playing together since YMCA basketball in the first grade," Coleman said of Kunz. "He can dominate a game and came out tonight and gave us a huge contribution like I have seen him do before."
Kunz scored 17 points, blocked 8 shots and dished out 4 assists. In most cases this would be a pretty good night for any big man. But throw in a school record-setting 23 rebounds, and it made for a fantastic night for the 6-foot-6 Kunz.
The dominant performance by Kunz helped Lake Zurich to its first conference win of the season 72-55 over the host Mustangs. Lake Zurich improved to 4-3 overall, 1-2 in league play. Mundelein saw its four game winning streak snapped as the Mustangs fell to 4-3 overall and 2-1 in the Lake division.
"(Brandon) followed shots, crashed the boards, blocked shots - he did a little bit of everything for us tonight," Lake Zurich coach John Zarr said. "He just went out tonight, played well and had a lot of fun."
"I was extremely surprised," Kunz added when he was informed of the school record. "I just tried to get in position, get the boards and get it to our guards - they were really running.'
While Kunz was having fun, Coleman was having a pretty good time as well. Coleman chipped in 11 points, but his effort on the defensive end against Mundelein star Ben Brust was a big key to the Bears win.
Brust was "held" to just 24 points but needed 26 shots to get them.
"(Brust) is a great shooter and I just tried to take and make him drive the basketball and kick it out then just line up and shoot it all day," Coleman said.
Lake Zurich broke open a 35-32 halftime advantage with a 14-2 run to open up the third quarter. Kunz contributed 6 points during the run while senior teammate Connor Mooney hit a pair of long 3-pointers to help the Bears move the advantage to 52-40 to start the fourth quarter. Mooney finished with a team-high 20 points - 15 coming in the second half.
"I thought we came out with good energy in the first half but we were just a little chaotic on offense," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. "In the second half we lost some of our energy and started to get a little tight."
The Bears opened the lead up to 65-40 midway through the fourth quarter on 3-pointers from Mooney and Chas Evans (8 points). Mundelein tried to answer with 8 quick points from Brust and a bucket from Kevin Barber (15 points), but the damage had already been done.