Mundelein makes some noise at Lake Zurich

Two rivals started the North Suburban Conference Lake Division opener in fine fashion, as both schools showed up with their usual vocal cheering sections on Friday night.

It was a tie when it came to which cheering section was the loudest, but Mundelein won on the court as they blasted host Lake Zurich 70-49 in a boys basketball game.

"We came out and tried to establish the tempo," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. "We came out shooting right away and took the game away from (Lake Zurich)."

Ben Brust had 11 points in the first quarter and finished with a game-high 33 points, including four 3-point shots and a perfect 7-for-7 from the free-throw line.

"It was one of his better games," Knar said. "He let the game come to him, he moved the ball and had alot of assists. I told him that he is starting to become more of a complete player."

Brust also finished with 9 assists.

"I just went with the flow and I got a lot of points off of our defense," Brust said. "We played great defense, which caused them to have a lot of turnovers."

After a slow start with only 6 points in the first half, Mirko Grcic finished strong and led Lake Zurich with 21 points.

"We knew that we would have a big job in trying to stop Ben Brust," Grcic said. "We did the best we could.But it is obvious that we are still inexperieced. We have a lot of juniors coming back this year and we have a lot of work to do. There will come a time when we will get better and better."

Grcic also led all rebounders with 9.

"Mundelein is a very good basketball team," Lake Zurich coach John Zarr said. "They are a very up-tempo team, they shoot the ball well and they came down right from the beginning. Their transition game got them some quick baskets and were never able to recover."

Ryan Sawvell scored 12 points, Robert Knar added 11 points and Leavon Head chipped in 10 points for Mundelein.

Mundelein (5-1, 1-0) caused 16 turnovers and had 7 steals. They shot 26-for-52 for 48 percent.

The Mustangs also shot 15 of 16 from the free throw line.

Lake Zurich (0-5, 0-1) shot 19-for-52 from the floor and 11-for-18 from the free-throw line.

Colin Rathe had 10 points for Lake Zurich.

"I thought we came out ready to play, but the things that they do extremely well are the things that we are trying to do and we aren't anywhere near that level, particularly offensively," Zarr added.