Vernon Hills dumps Round Lake
Vernon Hills had trouble initially getting images to project onto the cinema-sized screen in its gymnasium before the girls basketball game on senior night.
The temporary glitch didn't prove to be an omen, however.
Which wasn't a surprise since the Cougars were playing Round Lake after all.
"We just match up pretty well for some reason with these guys," Vernon Hills coach Paul Brettner said. "It's always close."
It was again Friday night. Vernon Hills nearly squandered a 12-point lead midway through the fourth quarter but held on for a 48-46 win, handing Round Lake its first loss in the North Suburban Prairie Division and denying the Panthers their 20th win.
Round Lake (19-3, 9-1) is now tied for first place with Wauconda (17-3, 9-1), which beat Lakes 55-25 Friday night. The division co-leaders play again Tuesday, with the Round Lake hosting Grant and Wauconda visiting North Chicago. Round Lake then hosts Wauconda next Saturday in the teams' divisional finale.
Playing on its home court, Vernon Hills (11-13, 4-6) has beaten Round Lake in three of the last four years.
"They're well-coached and they play well," Panthers coach Gary Edge said. "They've had an up-and-down season. They've beaten some good teams so they're not a bad ballclub."
The Cougars played the Panthers tough at Round Lake on Dec. 5, too, failing to protect a second-half lead and losing 45-43.
"That felt really bad," senior guard Mallory Feece said. "This was definitely a redeemer. We came out hard because it is our senior night. Everyone was hyped up, everyone was excited. It was fun to play."
Round Lake got off a quick start with Feece's AAU Kessel Heat teammate Labrenthia Murdock scoring 9 of her game-high 18 points in the opening quarter to help stake the Panthers to a12-9 lead.
But senior Jamie Rucks hit a 3-pointer early in the second quarter to pull Vernon Hills even, and senior Kirsten Groody sank her second of three 3s with 36 seconds left in the half to give the Cougars a 21-18 edge.
Murdock, meanwhile, cooled off in the second quarter and didn't heat up again until Feece pump-faked on the baseline and scored to extend the Cougars' lead to 46-34 with 3:52 left in the fourth.
"We decided to help on her a lot," Feece said of Murdock, who was 8-of-26 shooting. "She was our main responsibility."
Murdock's 3-pointer with 3:24 left started a 12-1 run that got the Panthers within 47-46 with 29 seconds left. But Cougars senior Sarah Krippinger split 2 free throws and Round Lake turned the ball over in the final seconds, ending their seven-game winning streak.
Round Lake also got double-digit points from Ashley Miller and Chanee Brown, each of whom had 10.
"We didn't shoot our free throws well early, we gave them some second shots and got a little frustrated," Edge said. "We came back well at the end."
Groody and Feece led the Cougars with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Alana Coy added 8 (two 3s) coming off the bench.
"We got to make it interesting," Brettner said. "When we're down 12, we come back. When we're up 12, we give it up a little bit. We don't want to slow down all of a sudden with three minutes left and be the scared team. We just want to keep attacking because that's what we do."