Vernon Hills rallies for victory

Vernon Hills' boys found relief on the basketball court during finals week Thursday night.

The Cougars had just 10 points after one half and trailed by 10, but recovered well enough for a 45-33 victory over visiting Rochelle Zell in a nonconference game.

"I think we thought it was going to be easy," Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. "Things were not going our way. There were missed free throws, turnovers, loose balls, and all of a sudden you look up and you have 10 points at halftime. We had to stay the course and clean up the sloppiness. I think our senior leadership showed up in the second half, and we turned up the intensity on defense."

Vernon Hills improved to 6-4 heading into Friday night's Central Suburban League North Division game against Niles North.

Rochelle Zell dropped to 8-4.

The Cougars scored the first 6 points, but Rochelle Zell closed the half with a 20-4 run.

"They're such a good shooting team," Rochelle Zell coach Marty Dello said. "In the third quarter, Vernon Hills was attacking the glass a lot more. They were hitting their shots, and they were a bit bigger than us."

Sophomore Erik Rimas stepped up for the Cougars in the third quarter, scoring 10 of his game-high 12 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. He keyed a 17-4 run that had the home team up 27-24 by the end of the quarter.

"We just really calmed down," Rimas said. "The coaches told us to just play our basketball because the first half is not how we play. The shots started falling. I was just starting to feel more confident. Being down 10, we needed to do something."

Jack Barszcz added 12 points and pulled down 8 boards for the Cougars, while Tony Brown chipped in 10 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists.

Zach Rosen led Rochelle Zell with 9 points.