For Vernon Hills, victory tasted sweet ... and sour

For Vernon Hills, victory was sweet … and sour.

And yummy, too.

The Cougars, led by a monster 29-point performance from senior DaVaris Daniels, recorded the biggest victory in program history last weekend by beating perennial North Suburban Conference Prairie Division power North Chicago, 75-60.

It was Vernon Hills’ first win over North Chicago since Jan. 13, 2007. More importantly, it gave the Cougars their very first Prairie Division title. They are now co-champions with North Chicago.

However, by virtue of a series of tiebreakers, North Chicago will be the division representative in Wednesday’s North Suburban Conference championship game against Lake Division winner Warren.

Not that the Cougars are sweating that detail too much. They’ve been too busy enjoying their big moment.

On Wednesday night, they dined on sweet-and-sour chicken and other Asian favorites at Tsukasa, a Japanese restaurant in Vernon Hills. To celebrate the division championship, Daniels’ parents treated the entire team to dinner.

“That was nice to have the whole team together for dinner. We all really enjoyed that,” Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. “This was a big accomplishment for us.

“I just remember the atmosphere after the game was really special. Our players were out on the floor hugging each other and their friends and their parents. Back in the locker room, there was a lot of celebrating. It was a really great night for us.

“It will be nice for us to get some hardware.”

So who’s the champ?

After Vernon Hills closed out its historic victory over North Chicago on Saturday night, there was a bit of confusion.

Vernon Hills had forced its way into a share of the Prairie Division title with North Chicago, marking its first Prairie Division title in school history. And because Vernon Hills had beaten North Chicago by 15 points that night and North Chicago had beaten Vernon Hills earlier in the season by only 11 points, it was assumed by some that Vernon Hills had won the right to play Lake Division champion Warren in Wednesday’s North Suburban Conference title game.

In the handshake line, the players from North Chicago were congratulating the players from Vernon Hills and wishing them luck against Warren.

The Vernon Hills public address announcer also congratulated the Cougars and made reference to them playing in the NSC title game.

But hold the phone.

Within moments, the public address announcer made a correction.

Officials realized that the first tiebreaker used to determine which team would represent the Prairie Division in the NSC title game wasn’t point differential in head-to-head competitions.

Instead, the first tiebreaker is the number of victories in Prairie Division games that were by 6 points or more. North Chicago has 9 this season and Vernon Hills 8.

The only thing that now stands in the way of North Chicago and a date in the NSC title game is a game against visiting Antioch tonight. A loss and the Warhawks would be out and Vernon Hills would be in.

But the Sequoits have won just one Prairie Division game this season, so chance are good that North Chicago will keep its place in the big game.

“We corrected the mistake and announced that it would likely be North Chicago in the North Suburban championship game,” Vernon Hills coach Matt McCarty said. “Our kids would love to play in that game, but just to be co-champs in the Prairie Division is a big accomplishment for us.

“The way that we’re looking at it is that we have Warren on our schedule anyway in a crossover game on Saturday. We’re looking at that as our chance to play in the championship game.”

Title toughness:

Warren has a pretty good track record in the North Suburban Conference championship game.

The Blue Devils, who will represent the Lake Division in Wednesday’s league championship game against Prairie Division heavyweight North Chicago, are playing in their fifth title game since the game was created 11 seasons ago in 2001.

Warren has posted victories in all four of its previous appearances.

The Blue Devils defeated Zion-Benton in 2001, North Chicago in 2005 and ’06 and Lakes in ’07.

This year’s championship game will tip off at 7 p.m. at Warren. The Blue Devils have already beaten North Chicago this season, but that game occurred way back in November.

“We’re looking forward to this game,” Warren coach Chuck Ramsey said. “North Chicago always plays fast, they’re good in transition and they’re a very good rebounding team.

“They’re very strong at the guard spot. Their offense revolves around their guards, who are very good at shooting and driving to the basket.”

Loveable leaders:

The season isn’t over yet.

But Round Lake coach Jim Roberts is already missing Nick Lange and Isaiah Brooks.

He knows it’s going to be tough to replace his senior leaders next season.

Lange, a starting forward, has not only put up solid numbers for the Panthers all season, he’s also been a beacon of optimism throughout a 5-win season filled with ups and downs.

The same goes for Brooks, a reserve guard.

“For our program and where we’re at, we couldn’t have two better kids leading the way,” said Roberts, who is in his first year with the program. “They’ve kept that positive attitude and that has meant a lot. You can’t underestimate that.

“It’s tough when the losses start piling up when you’re a senior. It’s easy to think about quitting. It would be easy to say, ‘Forget this, I’m not going to play anymore.’ But our guys have played harder. I’m really proud of them.”

Lange turned in one of his best efforts of the season last weekend in a hotly-contested loss to Vernon Hills, which went on to be crowned NSC Prairie Division co-champions.

Lange scored a team-high 14 points and was a force on the boards.

“I’m going to miss Nick greatly,” Roberts said. “He has a lot of ability and I just wish we had more time to work with him and coach him. He plays hard and he cares.”

Lange doesn’t just care about basketball.

His hard work extends into the classroom. A member of Round Lake’s math team, Lange has gotten good grades and good test scores. They’re so good, in fact, that he got accepted to DePaul and received a substantial amount of scholarship money.

“We’ve also been talking about him maybe walking on to the basketball team there,” Roberts said. “He’s got a bright future. He’s such a sharp kid. He was joking that when he makes his first million, he’s going to give back to the program. But I don’t doubt he’ll be in a position to do that someday.”

Second to none:

As far as Lake Zurich coach Billy Pitcher is concerned, there should be no guarantees in a 5-win season.

So, heading into last weekend’s North Suburban Lake Division game against Stevenson, he was prepared to shake up the status quo.

“The plan was to play all 14 guys,” Pitcher said. “Our practices leading up to that game had been very competitive with our second and third group really pushing our first group. We felt those guys earned an opportunity to show what they could do.”

And boy did the Bears’ reserves put on a show.

Lake Zurich fell behind 9-1 to start the game. But when Pitcher subbed in reserves such as Brenden Seeger, Doug Murphy and Kyle Russ, the complexion of the game quickly changed.

Soon, the Bears had cut the Stevenson lead to 12-9.

Lake Zurich wound up losing the game 48-42, but didn’t go down without a fight, a fight that was lacking earlier in the game.

“We ended up playing much of the rest of that game with our juniors. They played great,” Pitcher said. “They gave us a different look. They were physical, they pressured the ball and we forced some turnovers. They also took the ball to the basket hard.

“In the first half, we shot 8 free throws, in the second half with our reserves in, we shot 19 free throws. I think that shows the aggressiveness they played with and that’s why they stayed out there.”

Lake Zurich also finished with a season-low 9 turnovers. Turnovers have been a major problem all season.

So now what?

“As a staff, all six of us coaches sat and talked quite a bit after the game,” Pitcher said. “It was, ‘Where do we go from here?’ We came away saying that basically, it’s an open competition now. Nothing’s guaranteed. And that’s the way it should be when you’ve won five games.”