Lake Zurich roars out after intermission to remain unbeaten

With every win that Lake Zurich's boys basketball team adds to it unbeaten total, the target on its back gets bigger and bigger.

So when the Bears found themselves in a tight North Suburban Lake Division contest at Mundelein Saturday night, a little halftime pep talk from seniors Will McClaughry and Mike Travlos did the trick.

"At halftime, the kids were saying that they needed to come out and show and play like they are a 6-0 team," Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher said.

Lake Zurich responded by outscoring the Mustangs 20-6 in the third quarter en route to a 66-52 win, keeping the Bears perfect at 7-0 and 2-0 in division play.

Mundelein remains winless at 0-6, 0-2.

"Last year when we played here we had a similar first half to this one," McClaughry said. "We knew Mundelein was going to come out and play hard, and we can't come out and play like we did."

Despite the sluggish start for the Bears, they still built a 35-25 advantage. Then, to open the third quarter, the Bears outscored the Mustangs 12-2 to take a 47-27 lead with 3:46 left in the quarter. The combination of Travlos and McClaughry accounted for 10 of the points during the run.

McClaughry scored 8 of his 14 points in the quarter, while Travlos dished out 5 of his 6 assists. He led all scorers with 17 points, scoring 15 in the first half.

"When teams start to double on Mike, we have to identify where the double is coming from," Pitcher said. "(Travlos) is good at seeing the floor and can dish the ball out well."

Mundelein was in control of the contest early, building a 14-9 advantage in the first quarter. Senior Tyler Olson buried a trio of long 3-pointers in the opening quarter and finished with 11 points.

"I thought we played some pretty good defense here and there," Mundelein coach Corey Knigge said. "Where we struggled was on the glass. Lake Zurich had a number of offensive rebounds and we didn't finish by getting the rebounds."

Lake Zurich closed the first quarter by scoring the last 5 points, including a half-court buzzer-beater from Nick Meyer. The Bears then ripped off a 10-2 spurt to start the second quarter, taking the lead for good on the only 3-pointer of the night from Travlos.

Jack O'Neill was the only other Lake Zurich Bear in double figures with 13 points.

Senior Kevin Marcotte led Mundelein with 12 points before fouling out.