Outright Prairie champs: Vernon Hills
Before his boys basketball team took its home court in an attempt to make school history, Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty had one last word for his players as they huddled in their locker room.
"Outright."
Lakes, meanwhile, started Wednesday night's showdown without two starters, including leading scorer and rebounder Ethan Sage, who missed school due to the flu. Which meant you could count the Eagles ... out, right?
Wrong.
The pesky visitors hung around all game, before Vernon Hills scored the game's final 6 points to secure a 56-45 win. Robby Nardini scored 15 of his game-high 17 points in the second half, as the Cougars clinched their first outright North Suburban Conference Prairie Division championship. Vernon Hills (24-3, 11-0) looks to cap a perfect run in the division when it hosts Grant on Friday night. The Cougars tied North Chicago for the NSC Prairie title in 2010-11.
"It's crazy," Nardini said. "We've been working hard all four years, and we got it."
"It feels good to be the first," said senior forward Matt Weaver, who scored 16 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. "We had clinched a tie (last Friday), but it wouldn't have felt like we won if we didn't beat Lakes."
Bo Manso (11 points) also scored in double figures for Vernon Hills, while Cory Levin had 8 points and 4 steals for the Cougars.
Lakes (14-12, 8-3) was also missing 6-foot-6 center Dalton Solbrig, who sat out after missing a practice due to a volleyball commitment. Then, in the game's first two minutes, starting guard Benett Haviland went down under the basket with what Eagles coach Chris Snyder speculated was an ankle sprain of some kind. Haviland, whose jump shot had given Lakes a 2-0 lead, did not return and left the gym on crutches.
And yet, the Eagles found themselves within five points in the game's final minute.
"I think it's just a credit to our guys' mind set the whole night," Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. "We had guys fill big roles - Jack Monson, Zach Meyer, guys that don't always see a lot of minutes. Tonight they did and they played hard."
Meyer's buzzer-beating 3-pointer pulled Lakes even at halftime at 20-20. The Eagles had scored the game's first 8 points. Despite missing their first 7 shots, the Cougars trailed only 11-10 after one quarter.
"You got to give credit to Lakes," McCarty said. "We didn't play one of our better offensive games of the season, but Lakes had a lot to do with that. Chris had those guys ready to play. I thought they were pretty motivated without Sage, who's a heck of a player."
After shooting 0 of 5 from the floor and sinking just a pair of free throws in the first half, Nardini started attacking the basket immediately in the third quarter. He scored inside and drew a two-shot foul in the first minute, and ended up scoring 14 points in the quarter. His efforts helped the Cougars outscore the Eagles 20-12 to take a 40-32 lead into the fourth.
"We talked a lot at halftime about getting Robby going and screening for him some more," McCarty said. "They were doing a nice job defensively. They were draped all over him. We got him open for some looks in the third quarter. We're a lot better when Robby's hot. Robby's not going to let us lose."
Vernon Hills increased its lead to 48-36 with three minutes left in the fourth, but David Milostan's second 3-pointer of the game started a 9-2 run for Lakes. Milostan's pullup jumper cut the Cougars' lead to 50-45 with 47 seconds left. Down the stretch, Manso and Levin each hit both ends of a one-and-one, while Manso's layup finished the scoring.
"Sage is one of their really good players, but they just play so disciplined," Nardini, who also had 5 steals, said of the Eagles. "Every time you play them, you got to come out and play your best."
Milostan (7 rebounds) and Jordan Mercure (5 boards) each had 10 points for Lakes. Colton Jewell, who started in place of Sage, came up with 6 points and 7 rebounds. The 6-3, 200-pound Monson scored 4 points coming off the bench. The Eagles were coming off a 4-point loss at home to Wauconda.
"We talked before the game about what kind of response we would have after that (Wauconda) loss," Snyder said. "I thought, overall, the response was good, especially when you add in Ben going down in the first quarter. It could have been real easy to just pack it in against a very good team."