Intensity has been missing from the Mundelein girls basketball team’s game performances this year, and coach Brian Evans plans to ratchet it up in practice.
Except for a rally late in the third quarter and early in the fourth, an inspired Lake Forest team dominated the Mustangs 56-43 in a North Suburban Lake game Wednesday.
“We weren’t playing with intensity,” Evans said. “Just because we have a lot of players back from last year doesn’t mean we can just show up. In the North Suburban Conference, you have to expect this kind of competition every night. The only time we showed any intensity was in the third quarter.”
Lake Forest (5-4, 1-2) went into intermission leading 27-16 and built a 37-23 edge with 1:39 to go in the third quarter before Mundelein’s Natalie Busscher and Madison Davis joined forces to whittle the Scouts’ edge to eight points.
“My teammates were moving around and passing the ball real well,” Busscher said. “We started to get some momentum.”
Davis completed a three-point play and Busscher drained a trey at the third-quarter buzzer to cut the Lake Forest lead to 37-29. Busscher led all scorers with 17 points, including a trio of 3-pointers. Maggie Mahar added 10 and Davis finished with seven for Mundelein (4-3, 0-2).
Mundelein took an early 5-3 lead on Busscher’s first 3-pointer of the game and Davis knocked down a basket to put the Mustangs up 7-3 before Lake Forest scored the next seven points and never trailed again.
What the Mustangs can expect now is more competitive practices. Evans plans to put them through some rigorous training and implement the motivation he believes will make them more competitive.
“We’ll be scrimmaging and doing drills where one group is competing with another,” Evans said. “We’ll make the reward for winning great enough no one will want to lose.”
Busscher is ready to buy into the new program. She is looking forward to the stepped up drills, and the senior intends to be a leader.
“I’m going to keep reminding everyone to keep moving the ball,” Busscher said. “If we do it in practice, it will carry over into our games.”
Lake Forest played with more spirit than it has all year, according to coach Kyle Wilhelm. The girls’ game was part of a joint fundraiser with the boys, who played Lake Zurich immediately afterward. Both teams, the student body and the community were raising money to help the family of freshman boys basketball coach Steve Johnson, whose daughter is battling Lymphoma.
“They were inspired,” Wilhelm said. “It had a lot to do with coach Johnson and his family. This was the best game they played all year.”
Brooke Green led the Scouts with 14 points and Grace Torkelson added 13.
