Libertyville 60, Mundelein 53

Looks can be deceiving, and so can records.

The Libertyville boys basketball team is 8-8, but sure isn't playing like it.

Within the last month, the Wildcats have beaten perennial Lake County powerhouse Warren as well as Stevenson, one of the top teams in the North Suburban Conference.

On Friday, they added another giant to the list: neighborhood rival Mundelein.

Before facing Libertyville, Mundelein had been tied with Stevenson atop the NSC Lake Division standings. And early on, it looked like the Mustangs were going to stay there.

But Libertyville weathered a sluggish first quarter and rallied for a 60-53 NSC Lake Division victory in a packed gym at Mundelein.

"The league is so tough top to bottom. It's a meat grinder. It's like the Big Ten or the ACC," said Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil, who team had lost its previous three games to Mundelein. "We think we're a good team, but if you're on the outside, you see an 8-8 record. It doesn't indicate that."

Mundelein (15-4, 4-3 Lake) can vouch otherwise.

The Mustangs blew out of the gate and ended the first quarter with a 14-4 advantage. And they went up by as many as 14 points early in the second quarter.

But Libertyville (8-8, 3-5 Lake) finished the half with a bang.

The Wildcats were down by 11 points with just a couple of minutes to go before halftime. That's when Joey Aiello put on a little show that completely shifted the momentum of the game.

He hit a three-pointer to cut Mundelein's lead to 29-21. While hanging around in the backcourt in the wake of his shot, he stole a Mundelein pass and then nailed another three-pointer.

Libertyville then quickly got the ball back again and Josh Trees scored on a drive to the basket.

It was an eight-point swing in about 20 seconds, and by halftime, Libertyville was down by only 4 points (32-28).

"I shot the ball (for the first three-pointer), kind of saw the pass from the corner of my eye, jumped in front of the ball and just shot it again," Aiello said of his flurry. He finished with a team-high 20 points on 4 three-pointers. "That was awesome."

It got only better for the Wildcats .

A 7-0 run at the start of the third quarter -- punctuated by a steal and dunk by Greg Vente -- gave Libertyville its first lead (35-32) of the game.

The Wildcats would not fall behind again.

"When Joey hit those threes, we started realizing that we just had to keep playing our game," said 6-foot-6 Libertyville center Jeremy Letchford, who added 16 points. "If we had gone (into halftime) down like 15 points, that would have been really tough."

Speaking of tough, the Libertyville defense clamped down hard in the third quarter.

While the offense exploded for 20 points in the quarter, the defense held Mundelein to just 7 points, 4 of which came from forward Navjot Singh.

Singh was the only Mustang to reach double-figures, finishing with a game-high 27 points. He pulled Mundelein to within three points (54-51) with 1:35 left in the game. But then Libertyville hit 6 straight free throws to ice the victory.

"You can't rely on just one guy and have everyone else just out there," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. "He (Singh) was pretty much the only one doing anything tonight.

"The other thing was that we just relaxed. We had gotten a nice lead but we got into a bad rhythm and they started closing the gap. And at the end of the half, we just lost our minds. They scored 8 points in like 30 seconds and all of a sudden it's a different basketball game."