Boys Basketball: Numbers add up for Mundelein’s Robert Knar

Updated: November 30, 2011 9:59PM

True story about the night back in the 1990s when Mundelein basketball star Kyle Kessel topped the point total of Grant’s Lee Oler and became the all-time career scoring leader in Lake County history.

Oler had held the record for more than a quarter-century. But it was noted that the player destined to break Kessel’s mark was already playing high-school ball.

That was Deerfield’s Ryan Hogan and — sure enough — when his playing career was through, he headed for the University of Kentucky with the county career scoring record of 2,407 points.

Fifteen years later, that record seems destined to fall.

Currently, Mundelein junior Robert Knar has amassed 1,253 points, meaning he needs 1,155 more to top Hogan.

Barring injury — remember, Hogan went down with a knee injury in January of his sophomore season and didn’t play the rest of that year — there’s no way Knar can’t set the record.

Here are the numbers that add up for the guard who has the ability to hit from NBA three-point range:

Mundelein plays in more games than any other area school during the season — 16 regular games plus 14 more in three in-season tournaments. Now, Mundelein’s team is really good, so let’s advance the Mustangs at least to the sectional semifinals. That’s three more games for a total of 33 this year and 33 next year.

From the 66, subtract the five he’s already played this year — he averaged 23.2 points per game in a Thanksgiving tournament — and he has 61 games still to play.

Sixty-one games to score 1,155 points is slightly less than 19 points per game.

And Mundelein won’t play Simeon ... this year.

As for the county scoring record, note that Knar, Hogan, Lake Zurich’s Mike Kolze and Kessel — who likely will be 1-4 in the all-time county scorers list by the end of next season, all were four-year varsity players.

Longtime record-holder Oler played just three years at Grant.

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