Girls basketball: Mundelein wins 20th game, denies Lake Zurich share of NSC crown
Visiting Lake Zurich was trying to earn a share of the North Suburban Conference girls basketball title with Libertyville, but Mundelein wanted to win its 20th game of the season Wednesday night.
And the host Mustangs won out as they survived a late 13-0 surge by the Wildcats to pull off an exciting 36-34 NSC victory in the final regular season game for both teams.
A 3-pointer by Lake Zurich's Addison Leonard (game-high 11 points) capped the 13-point run to give the Bears (20-10, 12-2) a 33-30 lead with five minutes to play. But Mundelein senior Casey Vyverman (8 points, 5 rebounds, 2 steals) answered that trey with a 3-pointer to deadlock the score at 33-33 with 4:04 remaining.
The game was a defensive struggle the rest of the way as a free throw by Lake Zurich's Leah Gilbertson (7 points) made the score 34-33 with 2:47 to go. But Mundelein freshman Gabby MacApinlac (6 points, 3 steals) hit her second 3-pointer with 1:15 left for what proved to be the game-winning shot as neither team scored the rest of the way.
"We have battled all year where we have not been able to finish so I am so proud of them for finishing the regular season like this," said Mundelein coach Sarah Teipel, whose team held a 30-20 lead after a 12-4 run late in the third quarter. "It came down to the wire, and I'm proud of the toughness and the leadership we had to get that done."
Mundelein was able to run the clock down until the Bears forced a turnover with 23 seconds to play down 36-34. But Gilbertson missed on a drive with three seconds to go, and the Mustangs got the ball out of bounds with 0.8 seconds left.
Senior Anahya Castro (team-high 10 points, 5 rebounds, 2 blocks) was one of the leaders for the Mustangs while teammate Madalyn Gardner scored 8 points. Layne Nordstrom had 10 points for Lake Zurich while teammate Alex Nowak-Tice added 5 points.
Mundelein's Grace Dunigan had 4 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 steals and teammate Dulce Hernandez had 4 rebounds.
"We definitely needed it. We worked for it after having a few rough games, and we earned it to get the 20 wins," said Castro. "This will definitely help us have confidence and we can build momentum after this game."
Mundelein plays Grant next Tuesday in its regional opener while the Bears face South Elgin.
"We played tentatively the whole first half, we didn't play our game, and we looked nervous so that was kind of surprising because we've been to the regional finals last four years and got wins," said Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett, whose team led 11-10 after one quarter before trailing 15-13 at halftime.
"We made a nice run, and then No. 20 (MacApinlac) hit that big 3. They made more plays than we did, and we had a couple of opportunities but we didn't finish."