Girls basketball: Improving Vernon Hills falls to Glenbrook North in Blenner Classic title game

When it made its first appearance in the 42nd annual Blenner Classic at St. Viator High School three years ago, the Vernon Hills girls basketball team did not win a game.

Two seasons later, Cougars coach Paul Brettner had his team playing for the championship on Tuesday night.

After three straight wins in Arlington Heights, the Cougars suffered their first defeat.

The loss came to Glenbrook North (9-4), which won the eight-team tourney for the third straight year with a 47-30 decision.

"Credit to our kids," Bettner said. "They played great in this tournament. And credit Glenbrook North. They played better than us. What are you going to do?"

What the Cougars have been doing is winning games. They now stand at 12-3 after having a six-game winning streak snapped. They lead the Central Suburban North with a 4-0 record.

The Cougars went 3-1 in the Blenner after going 1-7 (eighth and seventh place) the last two years.

Senior Keira Thomas, a four-year varsity player, led the Cougars with 10 points.

"I think we've just worked better as a team," she said about the turnaround in the Viator tourney. "Our team never backs down from a challenge. We never quit and always keep going. We are definitely a different team this season. Even though we lost, we kept our heads up and still tried our best."

The Spartans took a 9-1 lead and never looked back, holding the Cougars to 11 points in the first half.

Thomas' 3-pointer got the Cougars within 12-6 after one quarter but the Spartans outscored VH 16-5 in the second quarter, closing the half with back-to-back 3-pointers from Sloan Berman and Jenna Budzinska Espina.

However, there was some adversity for the Spartans, who had to play the final 17:26 without their leader in scoring, rebounds, steals and assists.

Senior Kaya Schneider went down with a knee injury after making a layup for a 14-7 lead with 6:34 left in the second quarter.

Her twin sister, Ellie, also a starter, left the game with a knee injury with 5:11 left in the third quarter.

"Both have previously torn their ACLs," said GBN coach Nick Capalbo. "I feel awful for them. We're celebrating a win but we are down about what happened to two of our starters. I have no idea of a timeline. They're going to get an MRI tomorrow morning so I'm sure we'll find out shortly. Kaya is our top player by far. We'll come back. The girls will rally around her and I don't know how long she'll be out. And Ellie is really a great defensive player. It's a hit. But we'll be OK."

The Cougars struggled a bit with shooting in the first half.

"Early on it might have helped a bit had we hit more of our shots," Brettner said. "But credit to Glenbrook North. We didn't give our best game. But I think they forced us into 'not a great game'."

Madison Mays, Emily Ochleng, Emma Jocson and Thomas each had 4 rebounds while Jocson had 2 assists and 2 steals.

"Our coaches show a lot of confidence in us," added Thomas, who would like to play basketball in college and study philosophy and education. "Every day at practice they tell us we can do it. And they always try to help us understand our opponents really well."

Glenbrook North was led by Berman (12 points) and Sophia Gochis (10).

"They (Vernon Hills) are 12-3,“ Capalbo said. "They beat New Trier who we lost to so we are excited that we played pretty well tonight and stopped some of their top players."