Munster wraps up undefeated season

Updated: March 23, 2011 9:16AM

Coach Mike Hackett's top-ranked Munster boys basketball team made history Friday night, but to a man, the players and coaches hope the most historic accomplishment occurs about a month from now.

The Mustangs (20-0) finished the regular-season undefeated - but it wasn't easy - holding off quick, hard-charging South Bend Riley in the final minutes for an 81-74 win.

"Thank God we jumped out to that big lead early (15-0) and 45-24 (early in the third quarter)," Hackett said. "That's a credit to coach Mark Johnson and his players. They never gave up. They just kept coming and coming. I kept looking up at that scoreboard at the double-digit lead, but I never felt comfortable at all."

As far as the history-making aspect of finishing 20-0 this season?

"We wanted to win this and finish 20-0 and No. 1 in both polls," Hackett said. "It doesn't happen very often and we're proud. But we know that we have to be ready to go on Wednesday night (against West Side in the first round of the sectional)."

Munster joins Bishop Noll as the first region boys teams to record a perfect regular season since Valapraiso in 1994.

Ricky Carbajal - who tied Riley's Karl Columbus with 26 points - said there's still a lot more to accomplish.

"It's nice, because not a lot of teams can say they went 20-0," Carbajal said. "It feels good, but it doesn't give us any hardware. So Wednesday night, we'll come out 0-0 just like everybody else and start all over again. I'd like to go 7-0 the rest of the way and go all the way to state."

Senior guard Christian Young scored a career-high 20 points for the Mustangs, including 12 in the first period and 15 in the first half.

"Coach told me to come out and be aggressive," Young said. "My teammates kept feeding me the ball for wide-open shots, and I took the shots."

As far as being a major contributor to Munster's perfect regular season?

"It means a little bit, but it would mean more to us to be state champs," Young smiled.

Brian Stolarz, who finished with 19 points, six assists and five rebounds, had a big smile on his face and a bag of ice tied around his left shoulder.

"Going 20-0 is something to be proud of," he said. "Coach has been telling us that it's like being the No. 1 seed in the state. It's something no one can ever take away from us and we can look back on some day."

Then, Stolarz shook his head, smiled and said: "That bull's-eye that was on our backs before is 10 times bigger right now."

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