Mundelein's practice pays off against Lake Zurich

Prior to Tuesday's home tilt against Lake Zurich, the Mundelein girls basketball team had not played a game since Dec. 29.

"We needed the practice time to refine what we do," senior Brooke Evans said.

Spoken like a true coach's daughter.

Evans gave her dad, coach Brian Evans, plenty of reasons to smile after the Mustangs held off visiting Lake Zurich 50-48 in a North Suburban Lake Division matchup.

Evans made both ends of a one-in-one with 7.4 seconds remaining to give Mundelein a 50-45 advantage.

"She makes good decisions with the basketball, and we tried to get her the ball in the end," Evans said.

Lake Zurich (6-13, 1-7) called its final timeout after Evans' two free throws. Senior Gabby Chapa came down the court and drilled a 3-pointer. But the Mustangs (13-9, 3-4) smartly did not inbound the ball and let the final four seconds tick off the clock.

Evans seemed to score all her points in bunches. Midway through the second quarter, she scored on three consecutive trips down the court. Two of her baskets during this stretch were 3-pointers. She finished the game with four 3-pointers and a team-high 18 points.

"Brooke Evans was raining 3-pointers from all over the court," Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett said.

Chapa scored a game-high 19 points for Lake Zurich. Senior teammate Audrey Bauer had 18 points.

Lake Zurich trailed 40-27 late in the third quarter but scored the final four points of the period. The Bears closed the deficit to 43-39 on a bucket by Bauer at the 4:40 mark.

"We needed to make that one run to put some pressure on them," Bennett said.

Evans responded with five consecutive points, but some clutch free-throw shooting by Bauer pulled the Bears to within 48-45.

"We started executing and making plays," Bennett said. "We had too many empty possessions early in the game."

Mundelein junior Olivia Dunigan contributed on offense (10 points) and was all over the court on defense.

"I rely on my defense and (sometimes) that can pick the team up," she said.

After Mundelein scored the first six points of the game, Lake Zurich responded with the next eight. In the second quarter, Mundelein held Lake Zurich scoreless for more than four minutes and opened up an 11-point lead.

During this stretch, Evans kept imploring his team to make simple passes on offense and show patience.

"Our kids make the game harder than it is sometimes," he said. "We play so fast on defense that sometimes we have trouble slowing down on offense."