Sawvell, Mundelein top Bartlett

Mundelein coach Dick Knar has a nickname for Ryan Sawvell: Saw-zilla.

Saw-zilla lived up to the nickname, dropping in 18 points Tuesday night and pulling down 20 rebounds in a 58-46 victory over Bartlett in tournament play at Mundelein.

“Unbelievable, we talk about him being an animal,” Mundelein coach Dick Knar said, “(Sawvelll) puts it in his mind and goes after it, and he’s so athletic.

“What he did was amazing and he’s playing like an animal. He’s like Godzilla terrorizing the lane. We know he can shoot the ball, but we want him to attack the basket.”

Sawvell has accepted the name, and has helped the team to a pair of season-opening victories.

“Coach calls me that every day I walk into his office,” said Sawvell, who has 32 rebounds in two games. “It’s nice to know my coach speaks highly of me, and I keep getting rebounds lately.”

Robert Knar contributed 18 points and 7 rebounds for the Mustangs.

“Defensively, we did a good job,” said coach Knar, whose team outrebounded Bartlett 44-25. “We did a nice job defensively, we wanted to limit them to one shot. Offensively, we had a lot of guys contributing and not one big scorer.”

The Mustangs created some distance from Bartlett (1-1) midway through the second quarter. The Mustangs led 15-14 but then put together a 10-4 run and held a 25-18 advantage at the break.

“Good to get the lead and learn to play with it,” Knar said. “We kept our composure, which is a work in progress at this time of year.”

The Hawks tried to play catch-up in the second half and trailed 39-31 going into the fourth quarter. The Hawks’ Lance Whitaker scored 14 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter and got the team within 8 points.

But the Mustangs answered each time. Leavon Head made 7 out of 8 free throws over the last couple of minutes.

“Give Mundelein a lot of credit,” Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. “Mundelein was aggressive defensively, in our face, and took away some of our shots. We missed a lot of shots. We should have had a boatload of free throws. We left too many points on the floor.

“You don’t ever want to behind a good team like Mundelein, especially on their home floor. Mundelein will run their stuff with a big man down low and a guard who knows how to dribble. We knew coming in that this was a ballgame you didn’t want to play from behind.”