Singer shines but Vernon Hills falls to Lake Forest

Some singers turn chairs on TV shows. Vernon Hills junior Emily Singer turns heads with defense on basketball courts.

Take Monday night at Vernon Hills.

All of 5 feet 5, Singer was tasked with defending Lake Forest rising star Halle Douglass, who stands 6-2.

"The tenacity of Emily Singer is off the charts," Cougars coach Paul Brettner said. "I knew that we could pick up (Douglass) early, find her early, and Emily would be really good at (defending her). I figured even they posted her up, like Coach (Kyle) Wilhelm would do, we'd just offer (Singer) some help. She was our best bet against a very, very good player."

Douglass and her teammates prevailed in a battle of undefeated teams in Vernon Hills' Cougar Classic. Lake Forest won 46-41 to move to 4-0, as Douglass and two other Scouts scored in double figures.

Douglass had just 10 points on 3-of-12 shooting (4 of 5 from the foul line) but also had 11 rebounds and 5 assists. The junior guard has more than a dozen Division-I offers, including most recently from Brown and Illinois. She visited Saint Louis, which has also offered, this past weekend.

"I knew going into the game that I was going to be guarding a person taller than me, but my team really helped me when (Douglass) posted up on me," Singer said. "They all crashed to help me guard her."

Singer, who started at guard, came off the bench last season but was in the Cougars' top-eight rotation.

"The offensive side is coming and coming and coming," Brettner said. "She came in last year as a varsity defender."

Singer's only basket was an important one. She knifed her small frame between players on the baseline to score on a putback with 2:04 left in the fourth, pulling Vernon Hills within 43-39.

"I'm not really the scorer type," Singer said. "But I knew I needed to score for my team because we were down. I saw that (the Lake Forest player) wasn't boxing out so I ran in and made the layup."

Kayla Caudle (team-high 12 points, 7 rebounds) finished an inbounds pass to cut Vernon Hills' deficit to 44-41 with 1:24 to go. But Lake Forest's 5-4 sophomore Molly Fisher completed a three-point with 26 seconds to go after stealing the ball. Fisher led the Scouts with 12 points (10 in the fourth), while Grace Tirzmalis added 11. Lake Forest lost guard Finola Summerville (4 points) to an apparent ankle injury in the first quarter.

"If they continue to get contributions from kids not No. 21 (Douglass), they're going to be tough," Brettner said.

Mackenzie Mahler scored 10 points for Vernon Hills (3-1), which plays Sycamore at 6 p.m. Tuesday in its tournament finale. Daniella Jarrell had 5 points and 8 rebounds.

"The effort was great," Brettner said. "It was a little bit of (lack of) execution, which you can fix."

Lake Forest finishes up tourney action at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday against Antioch.