Just call Libetyville's Meyer Mr. Clutch
Billy Meyer grabbed the rebound, of course, because that's what he does best.
But then, with the home fans on their feet and seconds ticking down in overtime, Libertyville's versatile forward dribbled upcourt. He drove and sank the go-ahead basket, a pull-up jumper with 13 seconds left.
"At the end of the game, he wants the ball," Wildcats guard Ryan Barth said. "We have trust in him to go get it done."
Meyer did, and the home fans erupted. And when Barth grabbed Ryan Sawvell's missed jumper at the buzzer to secure Libertyville's 71-70 win over Mundelein on Friday night, those fans got even more excited. They stormed the court.
"Playing a team like Mundelein that just goes up and down real fast and scores a lot of points, I think we're that team too," Meyer said. "We want to run with them and I think we can, and we did. It was fun."
More fun for Meyer and his teammates is the reality that they're atop the North Suburban Lake Division with a 4-1 record. Lake Forest and Zion-Benton, neither of which played a divisional game Friday, are 3-1.
Mundelein (13-7) fell to a surprising 1-4 in the NSC Lake.
"It was a big win for us," Barth said. "(Mundelein) is one of the top teams in the conference with a great player like Ben Brust. To go out and get this win was huge for us."
Meyer played huge, and Libertyville (8-5) is getting used to that. He finished with 14 points, 16 rebounds, 4 blocked shots and 3 steals. Not bad for a 6-foot-3 player who often had the unenviable task of guarding the 6-8 Sawvell, who was nearly unstoppable, scoring 28 points on 13-of-21 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds.
"He's a beast on the boards," Barth, who led Libertyville in scoring with 16 points, said of Meyer. John Colao (three 3-pointers) and Tyler Schweigert added 10 each for the Wildcats. "Rebounding, shooting, blocked shots. He does it all for us."
While Meyer can score, as evident by the 36 points he dropped on Notre Dame during the Wheeling Hardwood Classic, he has shown in the first half of the season that he's terrific on the boards.
"My No. 1 goal is to be the No. 1 rebounder on this team because we don't have height," Meyer said. "We have to rebound when we play taller teams. In the off-season I worked on rebounding and explosiveness."
Meyer sank a pair of 3s in the first half, helping Libertyville take a 39-34 lead into the locker room. The Wildcats shot a blistering 71 percent from the floor (17 of 24). They enjoyed a pair of 13-point advantages in the third quarter, but Mundelein rallied.
The Mustangs took the lead with 4:57 left in the fourth on the first of two Sawvell dunks during a 32-second span.
A 3-point play by Barth put the hosts ahead 64-62, but Mundelein's Leavon Head (10 points) sank 2 free throws with 24.6 seconds left to force overtime.
In OT, Brust, who had a quiet night offensively, swished 2 foul shots with 56.8 seconds to go and give Mundelein the lead, but the Mustangs wouldn't score again.
They eventually inbounded under their own basket with 8.5 seconds left and ran a screen roll with Brust and Sawvell. Brust ended up relinquishing the ball to Sawvell, whose jumper from a couple of steps inside the arc missed.
"I'll take that shot," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said.
Libertyville held Brust to 12 points - 15 under the senior's average. Brust did dish out 9 assists, in addition to collecting 5 rebounds and 3 steals.
"They were face-guarding him and playing tough 'D' on him, and he wasn't getting real good looks," Knar said. "We weren't really running a good offense."