Vernon Hills outlasts St. Viator in 2 OTs
Vernon Hills junior guard Daniella Jarrell shoots with her right hand, feels comfortable dribbling with her left hand and inbounds the basketball with both hands.
What the 5-foot-11 Cougar deserved after Vernon Hills' 66-59 double-overtime defeat of visiting St. Viator in a girls basketball game Saturday afternoon - a hand.
Or two.
As in rounds of applause.
Jarrell (13 points, 8 rebounds) had at least one mitt in every point of an 8-0 run that started with her free throw at 6:21 of the third quarter and ended with her 3-pointer at 3:58. In between: Jarrell inbounded a pass to freshman guard Alexa Cieslinski, who scored immediately, and then hit a field goal following a steal from senior guard Abby Brown.
All of the above fashioned a 35-29 VH lead, after Cougars coach Paul Brettner's resilient crew had faced deficits of 17-8, 23-13 and 27-16 in the second quarter.
The 5-11 Cieslinski, who had a superb double-double (season-high 20 points, 18 rebounds), scored off another inbound pass from Jarrell in the fourth quarter.
"My teammates set good screens before I inbound the ball, and they make good cuts," said Jarrell, who has taken care of designated-inbounder duties since the start of her freshman year on varsity. "They also make good cuts to get wide open.
"They make me look good."
St. Viator (2-6) looked sharp for the bulk of the first half behind the production of 5-9 sophomore guard Joy Bergstrom (game-high 26 points, plus 6 rebounds). The young captain netted 10 of her team's 14 points in the first quarter. Midway through the second stanza, she grabbed a defensive carom, dribbled the length of the court and finished the trip with a bucket.
That put the visitors from the Arlington Heights school up 27-16.
VH (6-5) needed something, anything, to heighten its effort. It found that something during an entertaining, whiplash-ish 11-0 outburst in the final 2:05 of the second quarter:
Cieslinski hit a trey.
Cieslinski made a free throw.
Cougars junior guard Grace Guillaume connected from 3-point hardwood.
Guillaume struck again, this time for a field goal following a Brynn Ziemke steal.
Guillaume hustled in for a layup as the clock melted from 1 second to 0:00.
The clubs exited the court tied at 27.
"I just did what I could for the team in the minutes I got there near the end of the half," Guillaume, a valuable reserve, said after the Cougars' third straight win. "Points, assists ... whatever's needed. We're fighters. And we have so many contributors."
Two other bench players, senior guard Kylie Bunning and junior guard Emmy Woodrow, came up big in the second OT. Senior starting forward Lauren Shores opened the 37th minute of the contest with a basket off an assist from Bunning (8 points), who stretched the lead to 57-53 via a basket 41 seconds later. Woodrow (9 points) completed a 6-0 run with a left-handed runner from mid-lane.
Viator responded with a pair of free throws from reliable sophomore point guard Nora Ahram (14 points, 12 after halftime) and an easy 2-pointer from sophomore forward Brooke Davis (4 points, 10 boards), thanks to an assist from Ahram. The Lions, who started two juniors and three sophomores, trailed 59-57 with 1:35 left in the extra session.
But VH avoided a third OT by making 7 freebies in the final 52 seconds.
"We jumped out to that good start, and then [the Cougars] had their big first-half run," said Lions coach Jason Raymond, who received a 12-point, 8-rebound effort from junior forward Aubrey Horbach. "After that, back and forth it went for the rest of the game. Defensively, we struggled. We have to do a better job of sticking to defensive principles and staying disciplined.
"Discipline," he added, "is the big thing."
Bergstrom's role this winter, as a second-year varsity Lion? Significantly bigger than it was last year, when she competed with six seniors.
"It's been different," admitted Bergstrom, who scored 7 of the Lions' 13 points in the OT sessions. "I'm adjusting; I'm more vocal. I try to calm my teammates when it gets chaotic on the court. We had to calm down after what happened to our lead at the end of the first half. We talked about that at the half.
"I liked the way we played after halftime; we battled."