Vernon Hills holds off scrappy Maine East

It wasn't just the shoes.

Sure, the mismatched Adidas high-tops, one red, one blue, made Erik Rimas stand out.

But Rimas would have stood out on his own Friday night, even had he worn the exact same shoes as everyone else.

The Vernon Hills sophomore forward exploded for 23 first-half points and finished with a career-high 29 points as the host Cougars hung on to beat a scrappy Maine East team 60-53 in Central Suburban League action.

"They come like that," Rimas said about the mismatched shoes. "I just thought they looked cool."

Rimas was calm and cool after the game, but he and the Cougars were keyed up in the fourth quarter as they tried to put away a win that seemed a foregone conclusion through three quarters.

Vernon Hills (5-4, 1-1 CSL) was up by as many as 21 points late in the third quarter and took a 16-point lead (50-34) into the fourth.

But Maine East, which is 0-7 overall and 0-2 in the CSL, turned up the heat on its full-court press, forced 8 fourth-quarter turnovers and cut its deficit to as few as 6 points with 3 minutes left.

"And they had a three in the air (that could have cut the deficit to 3 points)," Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said of Maine East. "You've got to give a lot of credit to them for fighting back. They were pressing with their lives on the line. It was a super aggressive press. We have some things to work on with our pressbreaker."

Maine East forced Vernon Hills into a 10-second call and bad passes out of traps. Shray Patel had 9 points in the quarter for the Blue Demons.

But Vernon Hills settled down enough over the final moments to close out a victory with 7 straight free throws, four by Rimas.

"We just got a little too lazy (trying to break the press)," Rimas said. "We just need to step it up with the way we take care of the ball. We just thought the game was over when it clearly wasn't."

Jack Barszez also finished in double-figures for Vernon Hills.

Patel paced Maine East with 13 points while Alex George added 11 points.

"The press was successful for us because it created chaos in the game," Maine East coach Dave Genis said. "But we can't rely on chaos. Our starts to games have been awful. We've really struggled with that.

"We cut a big lead, but that's kind of what we've been doing. We'll get down, then we'll make this valiant comeback and get within reaching distance and then there will be some stretch where we'll revert to what we were doing before. We can't get down like that to start with."