Background works in Lake Zurich's favor against Mundelein

In addition to running its variety of often-effective screens, Lake Zurich's girls basketball team did in the fourth quarter what coach Chris Bennett expects.

The Bears relied on their experience. And, especially playing against a less experienced team, that was enough for Lake Zurich to rally for a 48-40 win over visiting Mundelein in North Suburban Lake Division action Tuesday night.

Lake Zurich (4-6, 2-2) outscored Mundelein (1-9, 0-4) 19-10 in the final quarter after trailing 30-29 after three.

"I think our team just got annoyed with the way we were playing," said Bears guard Rachel Kuehr, who scored 4 of her 10 points in the final quarter. "We just decided to come out (in the fourth quarter) and play our game."

Lake Zurich boasts a four-year varsity starter in Abby Pirron, while fellow seniors Kuehr, Nicole Gaggiano and Vanessa DiVincenzo all came up to the varsity as sophomores. Gaggiano and DiVincenzo each scored 8 points, while Pirron had four in helping the Bears snap a three-game losing streak. The 5-foot-2 DiVincenzo snatched a game-high 8 rebounds."

Lake Zurich started the fourth with a 10-2 run to take control of the game.

"I think we're a veteran team so hopefully we can have those runs at good times in games," Bennett said. "We've had them in other games against Stevenson and Zion (-Benton). We just didn't end up getting the 'W.' "

Lake Zurich's McKenna Zobel scored 8 of her 10 points in the fourth. The 6-foot sophomore converted a putback to hike the Bears' lead to 37-32 with six minutes left and later blocked a shot. Her soft hook with 1:20 to go answered Madison Davis' jumper, which pulled Mundelein within 44-40.

"McKenna is very good on offense," Kuehr said. "We've been looking more to get her into the post because she's very strong. She goes up strong, and then when she gets fouled, she can hit the free throws."

Amy Richards scored a game-high 15 points for Mundelein, which hasn't won since its season opener.

The Mustangs trailed 15-5 early in the second quarter but got within 19-18 by halftime and used a 10-2 run in the third quarter to take a 28-25 advantage.

"We've played well, really, in most of our games," said coach Martin Pazanin, whose Mustangs have dropped two-point decisions to Grant and Warren. "We're just learning how to win. We'll look like an awesome team for 2½-3 quarters."

Mundelein sank seven 3-pointers, including a pair each by Richards, Kendall Wald (8 points) and Carly Bonczkowski (8 points), but got outrebounded 25-14. A bright spot was the play of Bonczkowski. In her most extensive playing time of the season, the 5-9 junior sank 3 of 7 shots and grabbed 4 rebounds.

"She's been busting her tail at practice, and she's very athletic," said Pazanin, whose team has played the last couple of weeks without sophomore Kelsy Austwick (separated shoulder) and, against Lake Zurich, was minus Sarah Ouimet (mandatory band concert). "Carly did awesome."

Lake Zurich got baskets from five players in the fourth. Kuehr's 2 free throws four seconds into the quarter gave the Bears the lead for good, at 31-30.

"I think we just started picking up our intensity a lot," Kuehr said. "We started pressing a bit, getting up in their face and just trying to make them frantic so they would take more frantic shots. We would get the rebound and push it down the floor and try to score fast."