Bowen, Carmel school Grayslake Central

Tim Bowen coaches Carmel's boys basketball team.

He also teaches physics at Grayslake Central.

Carmel's opponent at the Mundelein Tournament on Monday afternoon?

None other than Grayslake Central. Bowen happens to teach three of the Rams' hoopsters.

"Lots of smiles and nods in class today," Bowen said after the game, the teams' tourney finale. "I didn't say much to the players in class. I did kind of tease them, telling them they'd get some extra homework if things didn't go the way I wanted them to go."

Things went Carmel's way. The Corsairs downed Central 58-49, blanking the Rams for nearly four minutes in the fourth quarter. A putback bucket by Central senior guard Kyle Shepard (11 points) cut Carmel's lead to 44-42 at 4:37. Carmel (3-2) then tallied the next 14 points, with all-tournament pick Dan Feld (game-high 20 points, 9 rebounds) and senior guard Doug Meyer (15 points) each scoring 5.

"We made an adjustment on defense," said Bowen, who coached varsity ball at Grayslake Central for eight years before serving as an assistant at Waukegan the past two seasons. "But it wasn't anything huge or really thoughtful. We told our bigs to stay low, to stop trapping high."

Carmel senior forward Dan Mooney gave his club a lift right before the buzzer at the end of the second quarter, nailing a 3-pointer to swell the Corsairs' lead to 31-21. It could have deflated Central.

It did not.

"Any coach in the country will tell you that the first five minutes of the third quarter are the most important minutes in any game," Bowen said. "(Grayslake Central) took it to us at the start of the second half, and we didn't respond well."

Central (1-4) outscored Carmel 16-8 in the third quarter. Shepard's third trey of the game, after too-many-to-count passes on a slick-looking possession, pared Carmel's advantage to 37-33. A field goal from Central's CJ Stempeck (17 points, 8 rebounds) and a pair of Sean Kirby free throws followed a bucket by Carmel junior guard Conner Jordan. Carmel owned a shaky 39-37 lead after three quarters.

But it was Central junior guard Jordan Taylor - one of Bowen's students - who served as the primary catalyst in the Rams' surge. He collected a couple of steals in the third quarter, disrupted Carmel's attempts to regain control offensively in other ways and did exactly what one of his biggest fans had told him to do right before the start of the second half.

"My dad (Tyson) said I needed to pick it up," said the 5-foot-7 Taylor, also an all-tourney pick. "He was sitting in the second row. He was right. I picked it up; we all did. Defensive intensity got us back in the game."

Carmel's Feld, a 6-5 senior forward, returned to the court Monday after sitting out the second half and both overtimes of Saturday's 78-77 loss to Bartlett. A migraine parked him on the bench.

"Bad. It was bad," said Feld, who scored Carmel's first 6 points Monday (Stempeck struck for Central's first 6 points). "I was seeing double. It was nice to get back in there and battle. We did not give up our fight after that tough third quarter. Coach Bowen he's such a great motivator, and he said some things to fire us up in the fourth quarter.

"The system we use," he added, "is heavy on trust. We all trusted our teammates."

Meyer impressed his mates after his steal in the middle of Carmel's game-turning 14-0 run in the final quarter. He mad-dashed three-quarters of the court and connected, while getting fouled, on a left-handed layup; he made the ensuing free throw.

Rams junior Casey Boyle, another one of Bowen's physics students, finished with 14 points and 9 boards. Frontcourt players netted 33 of Central's 49 points.

"When we get the ball inside, good things happen," Grayslake Central coach Brian Moe said, referring to the 6-8 Casey and 6-6 Stempeck. "You saw that today. What I also liked was the way we took care of the ball (during the comeback). A couple of passive possessions hurt us in the fourth quarter, and Carmel's pressure forced too many turnovers and wore us out mentally."

The Rams won't play again until Dec. 10.

That'll give Bowen's students/hoopsters plenty of time to bone up on centrifugal force and electromagnetic induction and quantum mechanics.

"(Bowen) is a great guy, a great teacher," Taylor said. "It was interesting, in class today. I walked in, and I smiled at him. He smiled back. On my way out, it also was pretty friendly. He held out a hand, and we bumped knuckles."

Mundelein 75, Lakes 36: Mundelein took home the second-place trophy of its own Thanksgiving Tournament Monday night.

The Mustangs came so close to playing for first place, but a 57-56 loss to eventual champion Barrington Saturday was costly.

Lesson learned.

"We didn't have the intensity Saturday night that we had tonight," said Mustangs coach Rich Knar. "We had a lot of energy out there tonight."

The Mustangs never trailed Lakes in topping their North Suburban Conference divisional counterpart 75-36.

The victory improved Mundelein's record to 4-1 while Lakes dropped to 0-5.

"The defense really got us going tonight," said Mundelein senior forward Ryan Sawvell. "It was a good came to come back on. We just took it to them."

Sawvell led the Mustangs with 15 points and 12 rebounds in just a little more than a half. Robert Knar added 14 points. The bench delivered 40 points.

"Our bench really came through for us," said Robert Knar. "We were on top of our game tonight. We showed that we have to play all 32 minutes with intensity. We know that we can beat a lot of teams."

Knar hit two 3-point baskets to start the contest as Mundelin broke out to a 15-4 first quarter lead.

Lakes closed the gap to 15-11 with 5:52 left in the first half on free throw by Tanner Blain.

Coach Knar called a time out to stress defensive pressure and the Mustangs responded.

Mundelein went on a 18-0 run, forcing 10 turnovers and scoring 14 points off of them to build a 33-11 lead.

Sawvell scored 7 points in the run with the help of 2 nifty assists from Sean O'Brien.

Lakes could not threaten as Mundelein eased away to a 54-19 lead after three quarters.

Justin Bergeon led the Eagles with 11 points and 8 rebounds.

"That run in the second quarter happened because we extened our defense and filled the passing lanes," said coach Knar.

"Now we get ready for Lake Zurich on Friday night," said Robert Knar. "Tomorrow in practice we need to have the same intensity."

Barrington wrapped up the tournament championship by topping Bartlett 71-65 on Monday.

Greg Swiderski

$CLASS=breakhead$Girls basketball

Carmel 54, Marian Central 37: Jackie Meier pumped in 21 points to lead Carmel to a win over Marian Central. She hit 3 of 4 three-pointers. The Corsairs also got 10 points out of Beth Scudder.