Knar, Mundelein get well at Zion-Benton's expense

Robert Knar, who left Mundelein's gym with a souvenir basketball perched atop a trophy, had a good 24 hours.

That's if you don't count the migraines that pounded the sophomore's head Friday night, the many bumps that his big brother Dickie said Libertyville put on him during the game, and the queasiness that he felt during Saturday night's game against visiting Zion-Benton.

Robert Knar felt ill enough at halftime that he took a seat on the bench while his Mundelein teammates shot around.

"I felt like I had the stomach flu," he said. "I was heating up, so I poured some water on my head."

Now the good for Knar.

A night after he scored his 1,000th career point in a victory, Mundelein overcame an 8-point deficit early in the fourth quarter and a couple of late 3-pointers by Zee-Bees freshman star Milik Yarbrough to win 68-62 in its North Suburban Lake Division finale. Ryan Sawvell scored 28 points for the Mustangs, while Robert Knar added 18.

Mundelein (24-4, 9-3) went 22 of 24 from the foul line in the fourth and 33 of 39 for the game.

Zion-Benton (18-8, 7-4) went to the line 15 times all night and made 8 tosses.

"They got to the line a lot, and we couldn't do anything about it," said Yarbrough, who led Z-B with 27 points, including four 3s. "We weren't getting to the line a lot when we got the ball."

Before the game, Mundelein presented Robert Knar a trophy for recording his milestone point. Sawvell, a three-year varsity starter, collected his 1,000th point earlier in the season.

Robert Knar didn't learn of his accomplishment until after Friday's game when he, his father, Mundelein coach Dick Knar, brother Dickie and assistant coach Corey Knigge went out for dinner.

"My dad," Dickie Knar said, "he was like, 'I'd like to make a toast. First of all, great win. And also, I'd like to throw it out there that Robert scored his 1,000th point today.' I was like, 'What?' That's unreal. I was so happy for him."

Also unreal: Mundelein's fourth-quarter prowess from the stripe.

Sawvell went 8 of 8, while Robert Knar and Leavon Head each drained 7 of 8 free throws.

"That was so clutch," said Dickie Knar, who sank a clutch 3 during the Mustangs' fourth-quarter comeback. "That was fantastic."

For the game, Sawvell finished 14 of 16 from the line. The 6-foot-8 senior also grabbed 7 rebounds and slammed home a missed layup that hiked Mundelein's lead to 60-54 with 1:31 left.

"Beautiful," Robert Knar said of Sawvell's free-throw stroke. "We've really focused on our big men being good on the free throw line. David Delgado is an exceptional free throw shooter. Sawvell is a great shooter.

"We just need to get Sean (O'Brien) on the bandwagon, Knar added with a smile."

A Zion-Benton big man, Owen Worthington, had 12 points and 14 rebounds. Backup pivot Curtis Cook collected 10 rebounds and 6 points for the Zee-Bees, who had three players foul out.

Stevenson 48, LZ 42: Stevenson bounced Lake Zurich for a 48-42 victory to move to 11-10 overall and 4-7 in the NSC Lake Division.

Lake Zurich falls to 5-19 overall and 2-9 in the Lake.

"I've got to credit our kids for having good focus, they really did a good job," Ambrose said. "We came out hard. We were real aggressive in the first half."

Stevenson jumped out to a 9-1 early lead and was up 24-16 at halftime. From then on, the Patriots never relinquished the lead.

Troy Radtke hit two straight 3-pointers and Johnny Ricchio added another to lead Stevenson's first-half surge.

"When Lake Zurich went zone, we were able to hit some big outside shots with Troy and Johnny," Ambrose said. "We had a lot of other guys play well tonight, too. We were very balanced."

Radtke led Stevenson with 12 points while Ricchio and Ryan Chapman had 8 points each and Michael Fleming and Kevin Earl added 7 and 6 points, respectively.

"We talked about how Lake Zurich has played a lot of close games this season and had recently beaten Mundelein, one of the best teams in the conference," Ambrose said.

"We wanted our guys to know that Lake Zurich is capable of beating good teams and that we needed to keep our focus on that and not somewhere else, like the dance."

Lake Zurich cut its deficits, which were as big as 10 points, by changing up its lineup. Bears coach Billy Pitcher rotated in a lot of reserves to shake things up. And, while playing almost the entire second half, they came through.

At one point late in the game, Lake Zurich was down only 3 points, 44-41.

Reserve junior forward Doug Murphy was a beast in the paint for the Bears. He scored a team-high 10 points and pulled down 8 rebounds for his best game of the season. Meanwhile, reserve guards Brenden Seeger and Kyle Russ also hit some big shots from the perimeter to give the Bears a lift there.

Russ and Jeff O'Brien each finished with 6 points for LZ.

Patricia Babcock McGraw

Antioch 44, Wauconda 41: Mike Barakat scored a game-high 20 points, as the visiting Sequoits avenged a three-point loss a month ago by outscoring the Bulldogs 14-7 in the fourth quarter.

Sam Green added 11 points for Antioch (4-21, 1-11).

Wauconda (6-19, 2-9) was led by Matt Mead's 10 points and Kyle Ryan's nine.

Warren 58, Lake Forest 46: The visiting Blue Devils won their ninth game in a row, as Darius Paul scored 16 points in the North Suburban Lake Division game.

Warren (22-3, 11-0) also received 12 points apiece from Nathan Boothe and Jeremiah Jackson. Brandon Ferguson chipped in 8 points.

Lake Forest was led by Thomas Durrett's 18 points.

Highland Park 54, Grant 51: Jared Helmich scored 10 points for the visiting Bulldogs in their nonconference loss.

Grant (14-8) also received 9 points from Sean Wells, and eight apiece from Jerry Gaylor, Ilya Kadushin and Shane Richardson.

Maine South 41, Libertyville 34: At Milwaukee's Bradley Center, the Wildcats dropped their fifth game in a row to fall to 9-14.

Matt Palucki scored 23 points for Maine South (19-7).

Rolling Meadows 50, Round Lake 44: Juddon Carter scored 17 points for the Panthers in their nonconference loss.

Girls basketball

Lakes' girls basketball team won its fourth game in its last six, beating host Richmond-Burton 48-34 Saturday.

Lakes improved to 11-16.

"We have been playing pretty well the last few weeks," Eagles coach Pete Schneider said.

Lakes senior Debbie Berg led all scorers with 9 points.

Lakes had balanced scoring with Ashley Parmly and Terese McMahon adding 8 points apiece.

Evan Morris, Ashlee Cunningham and Amanda Smith each had 7 points.

"The game got started a little slow, and that might be (due) to all of the illness that we have had the past couple of weeks," Schneider said. "We have many kids out with sore throats and colds."

Added Schneider, joking: " I have been giving the moms a hard time about getting their kids healthy."