Scouts watch, learn and win

Watching Ben Brust is a must.

Especially for Mundelein boys basketball opponents.

So that's what Lake Forest did this week. And what a show the Scouts viewed. They watched videotape of Brust's one-game offensive explosive last week.

"We showed them every one of his 45 points he had against Libertyville," Scouts coach Phil LaScala said. "We showed them how he moves without the ball and does an unbelievable job of that. The funny part about that was, after our kids saw that they were like, 'We know we're in for a game.' They took it to heart. They got after it."

While Lake Forest didn't exactly shut down Mundelein's high-scoring guard, the visiting Scouts used 26 points and 9 rebounds from their own star, Michigan-bound senior forward Matt Vogrich, and hounded Brust enough to earn a 72-52 win in North Suburban Lake Division action Thursday.

Brust, who came in averaging 29.7 points per game, finished with a game-best 27, but he shot only 11 of 29 from the field.

"He's moving all the time," LaScala said.

So to keep up with Brust, LaScala kept throwing different defenders at the junior. Vogrich, reserve Casey Hanrahan, Kevin Berardini (7 points) and Jonathan Sobinsky (6 points, 12 rebounds) all took turns guarding the prolific scorer.

"Casey Hanrahan did an unbelievable job on Brust," LaScala said. "He's got real long arms, he's a real good defender, and he was really, really good off the bench for us."

Lake Forest (5-2, 2-1) scored the game's first 11 points, with Mitch Hopfinger getting half of his 14 points, and Mundelein (4-6, 1-3) never could recover.

The visitors led 24-11 after one quarter and maintained that 13-point margin (37-24) at halftime, as well as after three quarters (52-39).

Ryan Sawvell had 13 points and 8 rebounds for the Mustangs.

"Our biggest thing with them is that you have to be disciplined," LaScala said. "We got the stops that we needed early. So we were very disciplined at the beginning of the game. We've been doing that. We've been getting off to good starts because we concentrate and we've been playing good defense."