Gaylor, Grant deny Vernon Hills

Jerry Gaylor had a “long” answer to Vernon Hills fans’ chants of “That’s embarrassing” after he missed a breakaway dunk.

Grant’s 6-foot-3 junior had a response, too, for DaVaris Daniels’ vicious one-handed slam.

And in the end, Gaylor and his teammates had an answer for Vernon Hills’ rally that went awry after Daniels was whistled for his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter.

Gaylor matched his season high of 24 points, as host Grant avenged an earlier-season loss with a 72-59 win in Fox Lake on Saturday night.

Grant improved to 11-6 and 5-3 in the North Suburban Prairie, while dropping Vernon Hills (13-7, 7-2) a game back of first-place North Chicago in the division.

“Our boys were super pumped for this game,” said Grant coach Wayne Bosworth, whose Bulldogs made just 5 of 12 free throws in a 63-59 loss at Vernon Hills on Dec. 11. “We felt they knocked us out of the division race (the first meeting). That cost us the division right there. We wanted to knock them out of the division race. Did we do it? No, I don’t think we did, but they’re 1 game back of North ‘Chi’ now. It was a little revenge factor.”

Gaylor got his payback, too.

Grant was leading 14-7 in the first quarter when Gaylor flew in for an uncontested dunk. He mishandled the ball just enough to miss the dunk.

“That’s the first one he’s missed all year,” Bosworth said. “We were all kind of chuckling about that.”

Gaylor wasn’t flustered. After Vernon Hills’ enthusiastic student fans rode him for the blunder, he came back down the court and drained a 3-pointer from the top of the circle.

“Oh, yeah, I heard (the fans),” Gaylor said with a grin. “You just got to pick yourself up after that. You can’t let it get to you.”

Another Gaylor 3 had Grant up 20-7, but the visitors slowed the pace and mounted a comeback. Daniels highlighted the rally with a steal and thunderous right-handed dunk with a defender on his back, giving Vernon Hills its first (and only) lead at 28-27.

Daniels’ dunk was a no-doubter.

“He turned back, when we were shooting free throws out there, and he was just smiling at me,” Gaylor said. “So when we called our (alley-oop) play, I was like, ‘I got to throw it down nice. I got to do something to get back at that.’ ”

Gaylor did just that, skying and using two hands to flush a perfect lob pass from Allen Lewis, giving the lead back to Grant at 31-29.

Lewis’ 3-pointer had Grant up 34-31 at the half.

“Both of those boys can get up there,” Bosworth marveled of Gaylor and Daniels.

In a tightly called game that saw two players from each side foul out, Grant took a 45-41 advantage into the final quarter.

Fifty-one seconds in, Grant’s Ilya Kadushin converted a Lewis pass and was fouled by Daniels. It was Daniels’ fifth foul, and Vernon Hills’ situation was worsened when Daniels was called for a technical foul. With Daniels out, Grant stretched the lead to 53-41 less than two minutes into the quarter and never looked back.

“Once we saw (Daniels) go out,” Gaylor said, “we were like, ‘We got to put our foot on the gas, keep going and take it to them as hard as we can.’ ”

Daniels and Chris Argianas led Vernon Hills with 13 points apiece, while Darren Hoveydai added 11 coming off the bench. Brian Berzanski had 8 points and 8 rebounds, and Jarrett Wood collected 7 of his 8 boards on the offensive glass.

Kadushin (14 points, 6 rebounds) and Lewis (10) also scored in double figures for Grant. Jared Helmich contributed 9 points and 11 rebounds.

Gaylor shot 9 of 14 from the floor with three 3-pointers.

“All year he’s stepped out and knocked down the 3 when he’s been open,” Bosworth said. “The boy’s got hops like I’ve never seen.”