Allen's drive caps dramatic LZ rally
Speeding the length of Mundelein's basketball court about as fast as she sprints on a track, Olivia Allen sank a driving layup with two seconds left.
It happened so quickly and so easily, and provided such a stunning end to a game that was as good as it was expected to be, that Lake Zurich coach Chris Bennett couldn't help but flash a sheepish grin.
Allen's heroic bucket lifted Lake Zurich to a 48-47 win in a North Suburban Conference Lake Division thriller Friday night. That, after the visiting Bears trailed by 11 points midway through the fourth quarter.
Lake Zurich - which got 18 points and 15 rebounds from Audrey Bauer - improved to 7-0 overall and 3-0 in the NSC Lake. Mundelein fell to 6-2 and 0-2 with its second straight loss.
"Mundelein was the better team tonight," Bennett said. "I'm not sure we deserved to win that game. We do have some seniors that can make plays."
The Bradley-bound Allen being one of them.
After the Mustangs missed their third straight one-and-one in the final 29.7 seconds, the Bears rebounded the miss and called timeout with 6.6 seconds left.
Mundelein coach Brian Evans, having scouted Lake Zurich and being familiar with the Bears, knew what play was coming.
"We diagramed it real quick. It's similar to a play that we run," Evans said. "I said to my girls, 'Watch out for them giving the ball to Olivia Allen and letting her just put it on the ground and just zoom to the basket and try to draw a foul.' I said, 'Just try to get in her way.' "
The Mustangs didn't. Allen, who's a three-time state-qualifying sprinter in track, used a screen from Karlissa Skarb to grab the inbounds pass from Bauer. She dribbled the length of the floor, past defenders, and scored uncontested.
"The play is, Olivia go really fast," Bennett said. "Then we had Lydia (Bauer) on the back side. If she couldn't get to the basket, she could hopefully kick it over to Lydia for a shot."
"I was so scared," said Allen,who finished with 12 points and 6 rebounds. "I was supposed to go to Lydia, but they were covering her, so I just took it myself. There was a path that just opened for me so I was able to get through it and score."
Mundelein, which led nearly the entire night, was up 47-36 after a basket by Olivia Dunigan with 4:10 left. But Audrey Bauer scored the next eight points, which included going coast to coast on one play. She had 6 rebounds in the fourth.
"Audrey's been our unsung hero all year," Bennett said.
Skarb scored on an offensive rebound with 37 seconds left to pull the Bears within 47-46. The 5-foot-4 sophomore had 3 offensive boards in the fourth and, in total, 5 rebounds.
"She's tough," Audrey Bauer said.
Mundelein's inability to finish at the end set the stage for Allen's dramatic basket.
Toni Knar led the Mustangs with 15 points (three 3-pointers) and 10 rebounds. Dunigan and J.J. Sawchuk had 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Lydia Bauer added 8 points and 6 rebounds for the Bears.
"We just had to really pick it up on defense, first of all, because we were giving up too many shots and offensive rebounds," Audrey Bauer said. "Once we got some good stops on defense, we wanted to pick it up on offense and see if we could get some good aggressive shots going toward the basket and not settle for jump shots."