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Boys Basketball: Vernon Hills holds off Carmel
Updated: December 1, 2011 2:41PM
Trenton Fulton scored 15 points and visiting Vernon Hills survived a wild final sequence to edge Carmel 46-45 in a nonconference game on Wednesday night.
Vernon Hills (3-2) plays at Round Lake on Friday. Carmel (1-3) plays Huntley the same night.
Wednesday’s thriller went down to the wire.
Vernon Hills’ Stephen Curry (nine points) hit 1-of-2 from the foul line with 11 seconds left to give his team a 46-43 lead.
Carmel’s Billy Kirby then drove the length of the court for an uncontested layup with five seconds left, and the Corsairs immediately called a timeout.
Curry was then fouled with 4.3 seconds left, but missed the free throw.
Carmel’s Ian Kristan boarded and drove into the front court, but Curry knocked the ball away before a shot could be taken at the buzzer.
“I emphasized playing with emotion and told our kids to have fun tonight,” said winning coach Matt McCarty, whose team was coming off a 30-point loss to Class 3A state power Ridgewood. “I was pleased with the effort.”
Fulton is a 6-3 forward who came up big all night.
“I was happy with his effort tonight,” said McCarty. “It was his best game of the season (three three-pointers) by far.”
On the other side, Carmel coach Tim Bowen saw his young team nearly steal a win.
“We didn’t finish, but I’m pretty happy about coming back,” said Bowen. “We have very little varsity experience.”
Carmel started three sophomores, and a fourth saw meaningful minutes. Senior starter Connor Jordan is out with mono.
Brandon Motzel, the lone veteran in the lineup, led the Corsairs with 14 points, and the 6-7 senior had 16 rebounds.
“I’m happy with the effort for 32 minutes,” said Bowen. “It’s tough for the young kids to play ... sustain the effort for 32 minutes.”
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