Mundelein corrals Carmel
Mundelein knows a little about watching a deficit vanish.
Just two days earlier, the Mustangs rallied from a 25-point first half deficit before eventually falling to Evanston in the boys basketball tournament hosted by Mundelein.
On Friday night against rival Carmel, the Mustangs found themselves in a game of role reversal.
The hosts held a pair of first half double-figure cushions and two in the third quarter but still could not shake the pesky Carmel Corsairs. It wasn't until 2:24 remained in the fourth quarter that the Mustangs finally began to put away Carmel.
Junior Ryan Sawvell scored six of his 12 points in the final two minutes as the Mustangs closed the game on a 7-2 spurt to pull away and defeat Carmel 77-68. Mundelein improved to 2-1 and will face Loyola in round four of the tournament at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Carmel suffered its first loss and will take on Evanston at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
"You have to give a ton of credit to Carmel," said Mundelein senior Ben Brust. "They came out, played hard and really made us work. They just kept coming at us."
Mundelein built a 29-19 advantage midway through the second quarter before the Corsairs put together the first of many runs during the night. Carmel closed the half on a 10-2 burst cutting the margin to 31-29 at the break.
"We need to learn when to push the ball and when to set up more in the half court," said Mundelein coach Dick Knar. "The goal there is to take that 10-point game and make it 15 or 20 points."
Brust saw to it that the margin went right back to double figures in the third quarter. The Iowa-bound senior scored the Mustangs' first 9 points to open the quarter and scored 22 of his game-best 31 points in the second half. His second 3-pointer of the quarter gave the Mustangs their biggest cushion at 48-37 with 3:51 to go in the period.
"We need to work on getting that lead when it's at 10 or 11 up to 15 or 20 points instead of letting it go the other way," Brust said.
Like they had pretty much all night, the Corsairs came back yet again, it wasn't just one Carmel player that brought the team back, and it was a host of Corsairs that did the trick. Senior Patrick Cox was just one piece of the puzzle. His 14-point, 9-rebound effort helped keep Carmel close.
"He's a competitor," said Carmel coach John Ryan of Cox. "Whatever it takes and whatever we need him to do on the floor he does for us."
Daniel Feld and Jonathan Huisel also brought the Corsairs back. Feld came off the bench to score 16 points including back-to-back buckets to end the third quarter that gave Carmel its first lead of the night at 53-50. Feld also added 11 rebounds. Huisel chipped in with 14 points with all but two of them coming in the second half.
Douglas Meyer was the only other Carmel player in double figures with 10 points. Robert Knar (11 points) and Leavon Head (10 points) joined Brust and Sawvell in double digits for Mundelein.