Vernon Hills survives close call with Antioch
Antioch's boys basketball team had been here, in position to pull off a dramatic victory.
Cory Levin had rarely been here, in position to provide an offensive spark for a Vernon Hills team that usually has ample scoring weapons.
Levin capitalized on his opportunity.
Antioch, again, could not.
Levin scored 6 of his 9 points in overtime, Robby Nardini awoke to sink a big 3-pointer in the extra session and Vernon Hills avoided a huge upset by outlasting the host Sequoits 68-65 Wednesday night.
Point guard Danny Brito led Antioch with a season-high 16 points (four 3-pointers) and 9 rebounds. Kyle Gofron scored 13 points, while Weston Fox contributed 10 points and 8 rebounds coming off the bench for the Sequoits.
"I feel really bad for the Antioch kids," coach Matt McCarty said after his Cougars improved to 19-3 and 7-0 in the North Suburban Conference Prairie Division. "I think if they had knocked down some free throws, they probably would have deserved to win that game."
For Antioch (7-11, 2-6), it was its eighth loss by six or fewer points. The Sequoits missed a combined 5 free throws in the fourth quarter and overtime.
"We're working on our mental toughness," coach Jim White said after his Sequoits committed 4 turnovers in the fourth quarter and 3 in OT. "It's one of those where they can hear the same things out of our mouth only so often. We keep telling them this is going to pay off in March, and it will. We're getting experience playing with some pretty good teams. We just want (the players) to feel the gratification of a win, too."
Nardini finished with a game-high 20 points (12 in the first half), while Matt Weaver added 15 points and 10 rebounds for Vernon Hills.
"Coach always harps on us about road games because last year in January we lost 3-4 Prairie Division road games, and that killed us," said Levin, who also had 4 steals. "We knew this game was big."
Sam Rattner scored all 10 of his points in the fourth quarter for Vernon Hills, which trailed 54-47 after the Sequoits' Josh Bell converted a three-point play with 6:09 left. Brito's 2 free throws had Antioch up 58-53 with 2:10 to go, but a drive and then a 3 by Rattner with 1:04 remaining knotted the score at 58-58. Neither team scored in regulation after that, despite numerous chances, including flurries at both ends, in the final seconds.
Levin opened the scoring in the extra session with a drive and scored again later on another aggressive move to the basket. His 2 free throws with 31 seconds left hiked the Cougars' lead to 67-60.
"Usually I like to facilitate because we got so many scorers," Levin said. "I don't really need to do anything except make open shots. Once I saw we were a little cold, and once we survived that fourth quarter, I thought, 'I have to score for us to win this game.' "
Nardini, who missed seven straight shots from beyond the arc in the second half, drained a left-corner 3-pointer to give the Cougars the lead for good in overtime.
"The thing with Robby is, you really can't tell him to stop shooting because then he hits that big 3," McCarty said. "He's had a couple of games this year where he's been 'off,' but there's always one big shot left in him."
Griffin Hill and Brito took turns defending Nardini, who had just 1 field goal (on a putback) in the third and fourth quarters.
"It was a challenge," said Hill, who played big off the bench with 8 points and 6 rebounds. "Coach pretty much told us to just let the rest of the team worry about the rest of the game and for us to guard (Nardini) and try to keep him out of the game. I think we did a good job, especially Danny. He was really up on him."
Bo Manso had 8 points for Vernon Hills, which led 17-11 after one quarte and 35-30 at halftime. Fox's post-up bucket in the closing seconds of the third pulled Antioch even at 45-45.
"Lots of credit to Antioch," McCarty said. "That was really a phenomenal effort by them."