Libertyville's journey includes melodic win

There's no denying that fans in the Libertyville student section can cheer. They're always some of the loudest and most animated in the North Suburban Conference.

But who knew they could sing, too?

When visiting Mundelein called a timeout less than two minutes into the fourth quarter Friday night, music began playing over the loudspeaker and fans in the Libertyville student section sang along word-for-word at the top of their lungs.

The song was Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'."

Fun song to sing, but maybe not the most appropriate choice. After all, the Wildcats were already up by 12 points and were coming off a third quarter in which they had outscored Mundelein by 10 points.

Considering that the game was tied at halftime, the momentum had clearly swung in Liberyville's favor.

It stayed there, too.

Libertyville wound up running away with a 79-64 North Suburban Conference Lake Division victory in a battle between two injury-riddled teams.

The Wildcats, who have seen 10 of their 16 players miss games with injuries or illnesses, improve to 6-10 overall and 3-4 in the division. Mundelein, which has also suffered through injuries to multiple players, including junior guard Ben Brust, who was averaging nearly 30 points per game before breaking his leg earlier this month, drops to 9-11 overall and 1-5 in the Lake.

"I think we really picked up the intensity (after halftime)," said Libertyville senior forward Paul Aynilian, who scored a team- and season-high 18 points, including 10 in the decisive third quarter. "In the first half, we weren't playing with a sense of urgency. We got the energy in the second half, the crowd helped us and we built on that momentum."

Libertyville turned a 37-37 halftime tie into a 64-54 advantage at the end of the third quarter, which closed on a three-pointer by Aynilian at the buzzer. That lead ballooned quickly in the fourth quarter thanks to ice cold shooting by the Mustangs.

Mundelein missed its first 20 - that's right, 20 - shots of the fourth quarter.

"We just got tired a little bit," said Mundelein senior guard Kevin Barber, who scored a game-high 20 points, but managed just a single free throw in the fourth quarter. "I know I got tired. I'm not used to playing that much. A lot of guys aren't."

Injuries have forced players like Barber to take on more involved roles. And that can be a tough transition to make this late in the season.

"We have different kids who are now responsible to take shots in big-time situations and that's tough for them," said Mundelein coach Dick Knar, who also had to carefuly negotiate the playing time of second-leading scorer, Ryan Sawvell (7 points) who suffered a serious, grade-3 ankle sprain in practice last week. "That's what we're learning right now."

The Wildcats also had their own serious ankle sprain to consider. Senior center Jeremy Letchford's playing time was limited and he left the game just before halftime to have his ankle re-taped.

But even with one bad wheel, Letchford managed to score 15 points.

Libertyville also got double-figures from Myles Burton (10 points) while Tyler Piasecki and Leavon Head added 11 and 10 points respectivley for Mundelein.