Vernon Hills is right on target

Kids and guns don’t mix.

Unless it’s “The Gun.”

Vernon Hills basketball coach Matt McCarty encourages his players to use “The Gun,” a training device for uninterrupted shooting. “The Gun” is a huge net and machine that attaches to the backboard and acts as a rebounder. Both makes and misses bounce off the net and are promptly returned by the machine back into the hands of the shooter.

“It’s about rapid-fire shooting,” McCarty said. “You don’t have to go rebound your own shot. The ball just comes back to you. It’s great for getting a lot of shots in. You just shoot, shoot, shoot.”

Guards Darren Hoveydai and Nate Rathod have been spending a lot of time on “The Gun” lately. And it showed on Friday night.

Hoveydai and Rathod were doing some real-time rapid-fire shooting in leading Vernon Hills past Round Lake, 69-41 in the North Suburban Prairie Division opener for both teams.

The Cougars (4-2, 1-0) connected on 12-of-18 three-pointers and Hoveydai and Rathod hit them all. Hoveydai was 7-of-9 from behind the arc while Rathod drained 5-of-6 bombs.

The 12 total 3-pointers is a new team record for Vernon Hills and Hoveydai’s 7 threes are just one shy the team’s single-game individual record of 8, which was set last year by Chris Argianas.

“After the first (3-pointer), I was feeling alright. After the second one, I was like, maybe this will be a good night, and that just stuck with me,” said Hoveydai, who finished with a game-high 25 points. “I’ve actually not been shooting very well lately, so I’ve really worked a lot in practice on “The Gun.” I just shoot on it for awhile.”

Rathod, who rolled up 17 points on Round Lake, often joins in. The two gym rats, after already completing a full practice with the team, will stay at the gym late into the night and shoot, shoot, shoot.

Bang, bang.

“I turned to our subs at one point and told them that the way (Hoveydai and Rathod) were shooting is the fruit of the labor those guys have put in,” McCarty said. “They spend more time than anyone else shooting.

“After practice, they’ll turn on music, they’ll pull out ‘The Gun,’ and it’s kind of a big contraption to set up, and they’ll stay on it for a half-hour, 45 minutes or longer and it’s always a contest between the two of them. They love to shoot.”

Hoveydai and Rathod shot Vernon Hills right into a comfortable lead midway through the second quarter. The Cougars were up 13-10 at the end of the first quarter and were clinging to a 15-14 lead a few minutes into the second quarter when Hoveydai and Rathod combined to hit three straight 3-pointers.

By halftime, the Cougars owned a comfy 10-point lead, 26-16. Four more three-pointers by Hoveydai and Rathod in the third quarter put the game out of reach quickly and Vernon Hills started the fourth quarter up 51-31.

“I think that’s the best they’ll shoot…ever,” Round Lake forward Mark Jennings said of Hoveydai and Rathod. “That was a good team. But I also feel like if we would have come with more effort maybe we could have won.”

Jennings brought a strong effort, finishing with 12 points. But he was the only Panther in double-figures.

Besides their hot shooting from three-point land, the Cougars also lived on their tough defense of Round Lake guard Juddon Carter. Carter, who averaged 17 points per game and drained 80 three-pointers last season, was held to just 7 points on 1 three-pointer.

“I know Juddon is a very good player and I’ve seen him score a lot of points against other people,” McCarty said. “Our No. 1 goal was to control Juddon and (Round Lake point guard Daniel Uriostegui). Whenever they came off screens, I wanted two guys there. I wanted to make other guys from Round Lake score.

“We had Stephen Curry on Juddon and I thought he did a real good job on him. The points that Juddon did get, Stephen was right in his face. Those were tough shots. If you’re not in his face like that, Juddon will score some points.”

Round Lake, which falls to 2-3 overall (0-1 Prairie), got 9 points off the bench from guard Teandre Brown.

“We got away from what we wanted to do offensively and we were never able to get back to it,” Round Lake coach Jim Roberts said. “They made a lot of shots and it got contagious for them. That gets to your kids when you’re not making shots and they are. It defeats you. But that’s just something where we’ve got to get better.”