Vernon Hills 54, Grant 51

Vernon Hills freshman DaVaris Daniels just wants to prove that he belongs on the varsity.

"I just try to contribute to my team anyway I can," Daniels said. "Being young, it's kind of hard for people to see why I'm up here."

If there were doubts about Daniels' ability to play varsity basketball, he erased them Friday night. He scored a career-high 20 points to lead the visiting Cougars past Grant 54-51 in a North Suburban Conference Prairie Division game.

Grant's Mike Shields scored 18 points, surpassing 1,000 for his career, and also dished out 12 assists. He became the sixth Bulldog to achieve the 1,000-point milestone.

"This was a disappointing loss," Shields said. " We're a pretty good basketball team and we expect high things from ourselves. I'm happy with the accomplishment, but I'm more focused on the team."

Vernon Hills (8-8, 4-2) overcame a 16-10 deficit in the first quarter. Kenny Rideout sank a jumper at the halftime buzzer to give the Cougars a 23-22 lead.

"We realized that in the first quarter, our zone press wasn't working," said Daniels, who fouled out with 3:30 left in the fourth quarter. "We had to change that a little bit and it worked for us."

The score stayed close all night. Chris Morgan (10 points) popped a 3-pointer to pad Vernon Hills' advantage to 53-49 with 56 seconds left in the fourth.

"We had numerous opportunities that Vernon Hills gave us, but we just couldn't capitalize on them," Shields said. "Whether it was bad shots or missed calls, we just couldn't capitalize on their mistakes."

Marc Grischeau, Gilbert Sheehan and Curtis Oler scored 10 points apiece for the Bulldogs.

"A good basketball team closes the door on the other team and we didn't do that tonight," said Grant coach Phil Ralston, whose Bulldogs fell to 10-6 overall and 2-4 in the NSC Prairie. "The key was how many mental mistakes we made down the stretch. In the last three minutes, we made enough mistakes that cost us the game."

Riaz Hoveydai added a career-high 15 points for the Cougars, while Rideout finished with 10.

"The last few minutes were very intense," Hoveydai said. "We were just trying to stay calm, and we kept trying to give the ball to DaVaris."

"The kids just played with a lot of energy," said Cougars assistant coach Charlie Pearl, who took over for head coach Matt McCarty, who was out with the flu. "This was everyone, including the entire bench. We were all on the same page and it was a great game."