Mundelein win just the cure Knar needs
What a victory and some chicken soup will do for an ailing coach.
Mundelein boys basketball coach Dick Knar may have been feeling under the weather Saturday night, but he felt a lot better after watching his Mustangs beat visiting Zion-Benton 80-71 in a North Suburban Conference Lake Division game.
"This is the first time in the six years that I have been here that we beat them," said Knar, who has a touch of bronchitis. "Ben Brust and Ryan Sawvell played exceptional tonight. They got things going by looking for shots where we could get them and putting them in.
"We had a couple of our guys who got sick in Arizona and my son Robert had the flu so I may have caught something from him. But this victory will help me feel a lot better."
Mundelein improved to 14-7 and 2-4 in the NSC Lake, while Zion-Benton fell to 10-6 and 3-2 in the division.
Brust led all scorers with 37 points, including six 3-pointers, and dished out 8 assists. Sawvell added 24 points.
"I was just out there playing," Brust said. "Ryan Sawvell gave us a good boost after the first quarter to get us going a little bit so I just went with the flow. When I had open shots, I was taking them, and when I saw open guys I was passing it to them."
The victory came after Mundelein lost a heartbreaker to Libertyville in overtime on Friday night.
This victory is huge for us," Brust said. "Beating a team like Zion, a team that we haven't beat in a long time, gives us more confidence as we head to more conference games."
Lenzelle Smith led the Zee-Bees with 29 points.
"The first half killed us," said the Ohio State-bound senior. "We got into a distance shooting contest against Mundelein and they have tremendous shooters. You cannot get into a shooting contest against them. That's what killed us in the first half."
Cordaryus Craigen scored 14 points and Paul Williams added 11 points for Zion-Benton.
The two teams were tied 24-24 early in the second quarter when Mundelein's Leavon Head (8 points) sank a 3 to start a 14-7 rally to build a 38-31 lead.
After Smith got back two points on a layup, Brust sank back-to-back 3s. The Mustangs led 44-35 at halftime and never looked back.
"Mundelein plays very solid in all phases of the game," Zion-Benton coach Don Kloth said."I thought they defended well, they rebounded well and took care of the ball and shot the ball well. I think in the second half, we played with more effort than we did in the first half.
"It was a night that there were some teams we could have beaten tonight with the way we played, but not Mundelein."