Zion-Benton 84, Mundelein 63

And after the seventh one, Ronald Steward rested -- in the locker room, during halftime.

Then he was done.

Steward didn't score any second half points for Zion-Benton Friday night. But that was OK, because his first-half scoring binge of biblical proportions -- 23 points on seven 3-pointers -- helped the Zee-Bees build up a huge lead that they would never relinquish en route to an 84-63 North Suburban Conference Lake Division victory at Mundelein.

Zion-Benton (22-3) stays atop the Lake Division at 7-2.

Mundelein, which never got closer than 10 points in the second half, drops to 16-8 overall and 5-5 in the Lake.

"I was feeling pretty good," said Steward, who hit all but one of his 8 three-point attempts before halftime. His 23 first-half points wound up being the game-high.

"It was in the flow of the game. My teammates were driving and kicking it to me and I just got a little bit of space. I was feeling it and just let it go."

Thanks in large part to Steward, Zion-Benton built a 48-36 lead at halftime and seemed to hardly notice that Mundelein had its fair share of 3-pointers as well.

The Mustangs canned 7 shots from beyond the arc in the first half.

"The first half was an action-packed half by both teams," said Zion-Benton coach Don Kloth, who also got 2 first-half 3-pointers from Linzell Smith (19 total points). "Mundelein came out red-hot and fortunately we shot the ball well -- Ronald in particular."

At one point in the second quarter, Steward hit four consecutive 3-pointers.

"It just seemed like everything (Steward) threw up went in. He was playing out of his mind," said Mundelein forward Navjot Singh, who tied teammate Ben Brust for a team-high 14 points. Brust hit four 3s and Singh had 2. "After that second or third three, we realized (Steward) was hot and we were trying to stay on him, but he was just into his thing. He just kept hitting them."

That ended in the second half -- mostly because Steward didn't take many shots (0-for-4). Instead, he spent most of his time getting the ball inside to Zion-Benton's dangerous post players.

Markus Yarbrough and Antonio Stewart had big second halves for the Zee-Bees and finished with 13 and 9 points respectively. They and their teammates also hammered Mundelein on the offensive boards.

On the game, Zion-Benton had 13 offensive rebounds.

"In the first half, we didn't really get a hand up and make (Steward) take tough shots," Mundelein coach Dick Knar said. "Then in the second half, we defended the 3 well, but they got offensive rebound after offensive rebound. They absolutely dominated us on the boards. They killed us. It was demoralizing."

Rodney Clinkscales added 13 points for Zion-Benton, while Ken Branch and Andy Rochon also finished in double figures for Mundelein. They had 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Branch tallied three 3-pointers while Rochon had a pair.