Mundelein falls to Waukegan
A great start did not lead to a great finish Saturday afternoon when Mundelein faced visiting Waukegan in North Suburban Conference boys basketball action.
The Mustangs stormed out to a 27-11 lead early in the second quarter, but by halftime that lead had diminished to just 27-21 as the Bulldogs scored the final 10 points of the first half.
From there, Waukegan (20-4, 7-1) held the upper hand in the second half as the Bulldogs went on to post a 71-62 NSC victory over Mundelein (14-8, 3-5).
Six-foot-8 Mundelein sophomore Scottie Ebube scored 16 of his game-high 29 points in the second half. But the Mustangs were outscored 23-13 in the third quarter as the Bulldogs took a 44-40 lead into the fourth quarter.
A steal and dunk by Waukegan's Jordan Brown was followed by 2 free throws by senior guard Andre White Jr. (team-high 22 points), and the Bulldogs held their biggest lead of the game at 62-49 with 2:12 to play.
"They're very athletic and they're very good, and we kind of get to where we're afraid to make mistakes and it causes us to make mistakes," said Mundelein coach Matt Badgley, whose team also struggled at the free throw line (8-for-19). "Sometimes we're playing not to lose instead of to win, and we kind of forget some of the assignments we need to do."
Waukegan was strong at the foul line hitting 22-for-27 (81 percent), including 13-for-15 (87 percent) free throw shooting by White Jr.
"We just had to come out with more intensity, we came out kind of flat," said White Jr., who had 9 points at halftime. "The more times you go to the free throw line the better it is so you've got to hit them, they're free."
After falling behind 3-0, Mundelein went on a 15-point run capped by an outside hoop by Jack Bikus (14 points) as the Mustangs built a 19-7 lead after one quarter.
But after building the 27-11 lead, Mundelein went scoreless for the final 5:23 of the first half, including 3 missed free throws with no time on the clock at the end of the second quarter.
"Having our top scorer (Bryant Brown) out (due to a minor ankle injury) against their big kid (Ebube) was tough so we needed some time to get acclimated and organized a little bit," said Waukegan coach Ron Ashlaw. "We've made some comebacks, we've got all kinds of seniors, and we just believe in our guys."
Brown hit double figures with 17 points as did senior teammate Jaylin Cunningham with 14 points. Mundelein sophomore Connor Enright scored 10 points while Waukegan's Ryan Edingburg scored 9 points off the bench. Andrew Gonzalez added 6 points for the Mustangs while Ja'Veon Taylor scored 6 points for the Bulldogs.
"He (Ebube) is a 6-8 sophomore, he's a great player now, but other teams do a great job of guarding him," added Badgley. "They hit 20 of 21 free throws the first time we played them, and if we even hit the free throws we had this game looks a little different down the stretch."