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Nardini (39 points) paces Vernon Hills' OT victory

Even the most optimistic Vernon Hills boys basketball fan had to be thinking the Cougars were in trouble when they trailed Niles North by 10 with four minutes left in their contest at the 3rd Annual Martin Luther King Classic at Lake Zurich.

"I told them when they came to the bench that we had one more shot at this," said Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty. "To their credit, they still had their heads up and were confident."

Then again, with Wisconsin-Stevens Point-bound senior Robby Nardini around; the Cougars really aren't out of any game.

Nardini began to heat up and that meant bad things for the Vikings. Despite playing on legs that were cramping badly, Nardini was still able to find his shot. He scored 12 points for the Cougars over the final four minutes of regulation.

Then, after teammate Matt Weaver forced overtime on a layup with 2 seconds left, Nardini went off in the extra session. His 8-point outburst gave him a career-best 39 points, tying the tournament record set by Duante Stephens of Niles North last season.

That and a tournament record-setting eight 3-pointers from Nardini pushed Vernon Hills past Niles North 89-80 in overtime to keep the Cougars unbeaten in tournament play. Vernon Hills (16-2) will resume action Monday when it faces Carmel at 11 a.m., and then host Bears at 7 p.m.

Nardini will gladly welcome the extra day of rest.

"We just came together there at the end as a group and got it done," Nardini said. "We knew there was still time left to make a run and we gave it everything we had. My legs were cramping pretty bad."

Niles North (13-6) built its lead on a pair of long 3-pointers from Craig Dawkins and key rebounding and steals from junior Crishawn Cook. Cook paced the Vikings with 20 points. The duo helped the Vikings build a 68-58 advantage with 4:08 left.

"I thought we were hitting shots and playing good defense to that point," said Niles North coach Glenn Olson.

And then it all came apart for the Vikings.

"You look at the stats and see where it went wrong," Olson said. "It was Nardini hitting 3s and Niles North missing free throws."

Nardini did hit 3s, including a pair in a span of less than 30 seconds to bring the Cougars within 68-64. When Dawkins drained a long 3 for the Vikings, Nardini hit one even longer that brought Vernon Hills within 73-71 with 1:12 to go.

"Corey (Levin), Bo (Manso), and Weaver were all driving and I was getting wide open so it made things easy for me," Nardini said.

Once in overtime, the basket kept getting bigger and bigger for Nardini. He hit a runner to build a 79-75 advantage, then made a pair of long 3s to ice the contest.

"Robby is just unbelievable," McCarty said. "He will miss a couple of shots, but you talk about being mentally tough, he believes the next shot is always going in."

Weaver had another strong performance for the Cougars with 17 points. Levin added 7 points and 12 assists, while Lem Turner chipped in with 10 points and 5 blocks.

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