Thursday, Feb. 02, 2012

Vanhook’s late layup lifts Tigers to victory

With 41 seconds remaining, Anthony Vanhook needed to make a wide open layup. He had already stolen the ball under his own rim, and a layup would put No. 1 Chapel Hill High School up one point against Cardinal Gibbons.

Instead, he missed the shot.

Nine seconds later Vanhook anticipated an in-bounds pass, took the stolen ball to the rim and redeemed himself with an easy layup, giving Chapel Hill (20-0) the lead for good in the Tigers’ eventual 54-51 win against Cardinal Gibbons (10-10) Friday night.

“He’s our best finisher on the team, so right when he went up for that lefty layup I knew (it was going in),” said Chapel Hill’s Elliot Orenstein. “Once he missed the first one, he definitely wasn’t going to miss the second one.”

Chapel Hill’s leading scorer, Denzel Ingram, led the charge again with 23 points, six rebounds and three assists. The most important of his points came in the final 30 seconds when Ingram gave Chapel Hill a three-point lead by sinking two free throws.

“He just means everything (to our team),” Chapel Hill coach Tod Morgan said. “He’s certainly our best scoring player, but he demands a lot of attention and is able to help other guys get open as well.”

Though the Tigers came away with the win, the game was tight. Cardinal Gibbons led until the final minute of play.

A foul and subsequent technical foul on Cardinal Gibbons put Ingram on the line late to ice the game, but even after that, Cardinal Gibbons guard John Mitchell’s last-effort 3-pointer bounced off of the rim.

“The kids fought,” Cardinal Gibbons coach Marque Carrington said. “We fought. We’re going to get over the hump, and we’ll see these guys again in the conference tournament.”