Daniels, Vernon Hills complete the mission

Vernon Hills' DaVaris Daniels was on a mission Friday night.

"We lost to Grant last week and I wanted to show everyone that we're a better team than that," Daniels said."I wanted to set the tone for the team on both offense and defense."

Daniels did set the tone by totaling 20 points, 11 assists and 8 steals to lead the Cougars past visiting Wauconda 65-53 in a North Suburban Conference Prairie Division contest.

"We had practiced our transition game on defense all week," Daniels said. "We kept clogging up Wauconda's passing lanes and I was able to come up with the steals."

Vernon Hills improved to 7-2 overall and 2-1 in the division. It's the Cougars' best start ever.

"The main reason for our improvement has been our guards both on offense and defense," coach Matt McCarty said.

Point guard Chris Argianas sank four 3-pointers to finish with a season-high 18 points for the Cougars.

"This was his best game for us," McCarty said. "He was our quarterback on the floor tonight. He took control of our offense and was able to get the ball to Daniels."

Chris Morgan scored 9 points and Brandon Curry added eight for Vernon Hills, which led only 30-28 at half-time. Daniels then opened the third quarter by scoring the first 9 points and coming up with a pair of steals. Argianas added a 3 to give the Cougars a 42-28 lead.

Wauconda trailed 47-32 when Kyle Ryan (8 points) hit a 3-pointer in helping the Bulldogs finish the quarter with 7 straight points to come within 47-39.

Wauconda continued to rally in the fourth, getting within 53-49. But Argianas shut the door with his last 3 of the night.

"We came out slow in the third quarter," said Eric Hartnett, who along with Matt Stonis led Wauconda with 13 points each. "We just couldn't stop Daniels, and then after we tried to come back, we made some passing mistakes that cost us."

Tyler Gick had 8 points for Wauconda (3-6, 0-4).

"We had too many turnovers in the first part of the third quarter," Wauconda coach Scott Luetschwager said."We couldn't get the ball past Daniels, who was constantly in the passing lanes, and then he was able to make some nice shots."

Both teams are looking forward to the Christmas tournaments.

Wauconda will have to wake up early this morning to play in the first round of the Jacobs tournament starting at 9 a.m.

"We are looking forward to playing lots of basketball in a short period of time," Luetschwager said."It will be a good experience for our team."

Vernon Hills will play Loyola in the first round of the Wheeling tournament Monday at 3:45 p.m.

"We would like make it to the winner's bracket," McCarty said. "After Loyola, we play Deerfield who should be either the No. 1 or 2 seed in the tournament, and if we can beat those teams, it would be quite an accomplishment for us."

McHenry 56, Grayslake N. 52: Matt Pucher and Michael Verwijst each had 11 points for the visiting Knights, who fell to 3-4 with the Fox Valley Conference crossover loss.