LZ rolls; Mundelein falls at Jacobs

Lake Zurich 65, Marian Central 52: After Doug Murphy finished his second three-play of the game, Lake Zurich went up by as many as 22 points in the fourth quarter. That paved the way to victory for the Bears at Jacobs’ holiday tournament.

Murphy finished with 14 points and 9 rebounds and also took 2 charges. Teammate Mirko Grcic led the way with 20 points, while also dishing out 6 assists and Ryan Roach added 13 points.

“I was really proud of how unselfish we played,” Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher said. “Mirko especially passed up several open looks for better looks for his teammates.”

Lake Zurich is now 6-5 and has won four games in a row.

Cary-Grove 54, Mundelein 52: The defending champion of the Jacobs tournament didn’t do much in the way of defending on Monday. Mundelein suffered a loss in its first game back at Jacobs.

A last-second 3-pointer by Robert Knar that would have won it for the Mustangs just fell short.

“I expected us to win, but we played absolutely uninspired. It was not pretty,” Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. “We were not aggressive and we didn’t shoot well. It was not a good day.”

Cary-Grove stumped the Mustangs with its zone defense.

“We just played against a zone a couple days ago, and we hit 15 three-pointers,” Knar said. “This time, we didn’t hit a thing. Credit Cary-Grove, but I bet we didn’t hit 20 percent of our shots. “

Robert Knar led Mundelein with 21 points while Cliff Dunigan added 10 points. They were the only Mustangs to score in double-figures.

The Mustangs were playing their first of many games without starting forward and Nigerian native Chino Ebube. Ebube’s grandmother died recently and he had to go to Nigeria for the funeral. He will miss the remainder of the holiday tournament, Mundelein’s trip to San Diego and the first North Suburban Conference Lake Division game of the New Year against Libertyville.