Mundelein hangs on to beat Deerfield for first win
Deerfield and Mundelein battled back and forth throughout their boys basketball game Friday and it came down to two of the biggest guys on the court in the final seconds.
Mustangs' sophomore Scottie Ebube (6-foot-8) swatted a shot away from the Warriors' Brandon Lieb (6-foot-10), who was making a move to the basket trying to tie the game.
Ebube also came down with the rebound but he was standing out of bounds with .8 seconds on the clock.
"My team needed it so much, so I wanted to step it up for them and I didn't want to lose that game," Ebube said. "I was just playing hard on him and kept playing physical."
The Warriors had one last chance tying the game off a quick inbound pass, but the shot hit off the front of the rim.
Mundelein escaped with a 48-46 victory over Deerfield in pool play of the Thanksgiving tournament at Mundelein High School.
Lake Forest Academy won the other game over Fremd 57-50, leaving LFA at 3-1 and a bye on Saturday. Warren (2-1) takes on Deerfield (0-3) Saturday at 1 p.m. and Fremd (2-1) plays host Mundelein (1-2) at 2:30 p.m.
On Friday, the Mustangs were led by Conor Enright with 13 of his team-high 15 points in the second half while Ebube dropped in 13, pulled down 9 rebounds and had 5 blocked shots and Andrew Gonzalez contributed with 11 points on a few timely 3-pointers.
Mundelein was able to get its first victory of the season in three outings.
"I think we've seen a continuation of a lot of good things all week and of a lot of things that we're teaching them," Mundelein coach Matt Badgley said. "Along with the experience that their gaining in the process, I think it was the time to make sure we were doing all the things right."
Mundelein jumped out to an early lead in the opening quarter, holding a 12-8 advantage. But Deerfield controlled the second quarter with a 15-4 swing for a 23-16 Warriors lead at the break. Deerfield's Jackson Kenyon had 9 of his game-high 16 points during that stretch.
"That second quarter stuff, (Deerfield) made some adjustments," Badgley added. "We're so young and inexperienced, even some of our older kids are inexperienced. It's a lot of teaching with this group. We talked a lot about it at halftime and our kids responded. We made a nice run to start the second half and made a nice run to finish the ballgame."
The Mustangs fell behind 25-16 after Deerfield's Kenyon made a layup starting the third quarter. But Enright and Gonzalez led the Mundelein comeback with a 15-5 run and Mundelein had a 31-30 lead going into the final quarter.
Mundelein kept its push going behind Ebube making a layup and a couple of free throws, along with Enright capping off a layup for a 40-34 lead with 4:20 left.
However, Deerfield chipped back and cut the lead down to a point twice with just over a minute left.
Enright made free throws extending the lead to 48-43 for the Mustangs with 38.6 seconds remaining.
The Warriors' Josh Garland dropped in a 3-pointer from the corner with 19 seconds remaining which cut the lead to two.
The Mustangs missed a couple a free throws with 18.7 seconds left leaving the final seconds in the hands of the tallest guys on the court.
Deerfield lost to Lake Forest Academy in triple overtime on Wednesday night and now this one by a close margin.
"Losing has been tough in general," Deerfield coach Dan Kendrick said. "We're learning a lot of lessons early in the year. They're not fun right now. I told the guys, it's tragic if we go through these things and not learn anything. If we go through them and the next time we're in this situation and improve, then it's a lesson we've learned."