This wasn't just some random fast-break layup in the middle of the game. Vanhook missed one with 41 seconds remaining in the game while his team, No. 1-ranked Chapel Hill High School (20-0), trailed conference rival Cardinal Gibbons by one point last Friday night in one of the Triangle's showcase games.

Cardinal Gibbons (10-10) certainly didn't anticipate giving Vanhook a second opportunity at a layup, a chance to go from goat to hero.

But Vanhook did it, in nine seconds.

Vanhook intercepted an in-bounds pass and dropped in an easy left-handed layup to take the lead just seconds after missing a no-brainer. Chapel Hill never surrendered the lead again and won 54-51, surviving Cardinal Gibbons for the second time this season.

"I think he got a little down on himself, but he kept his composure," said Chapel Hill's Elliot Orenstein. "He's our best finisher on the team, so right when he went up for that lefty-layup I knew (it was going in). Once he missed the first one, he definitely wasn't going to miss the second one."

Cardinal Gibbons missed on its next possession and Vanhook, who finished with 13 points, pulled down the defensive board, and Chapel Hill leading scorer Denzel Ingram added two free throws to pad his team's lead.

Though those two free throws were Ingram's most crucial points in the game, he undoubtedly played a huge role in the game.

Ingram got off to a slow start in the scoring department.

He spent much of the first quarter playing the role of distributor and didn't score his first point until there was 3:38 remaining in the second quarter. Then, as expected, he exploded, finishing with 23 points, six rebounds and three assists.

"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 extremely tight. No team led at the end of a quarter by more than three points, and Cardinal Gibbons had control of the lead up until the final minute of play.

Shawn Stankavage and Nick Holloway led Cardinal Gibbons' balanced scoring with 12 points and three assists each. Holloway was tough to stop on the boards, grabbing eight. Stankavage, a former standout on St. Thomas More's middle school team, snagged four of his own.

"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."

Even after Ingram's late free throws, Cardinal Gibbons had a chance to tie it on John Mitchell's last-effort, off-balance 3-pointer. It wasn't an easy shot, and Mitchell watched it bounce off of the back of the rim.

Chapel Hill trailed before the fourth quarter, but the Tigers held Cardinal Gibbons scoreless for the first three and a half minutes of the fourth, ultimately outscoring Cardinal Gibbons 13-8 in the final frame.

"We pride ourselves on defense," Carrington said. "We gave up, I'm going to go out on a limb and say it was somewhere between 15 points in (our) transition defense. And we don't do that.

We didn't get to the free throw line. You can't give up easy buckets in transition, foul excessively and not get to the free throw line. You just can't do that and expect to win games."

Chapel Hill faces its biggest challenge this week in its march toward the school's best regular-season finish. The Tigers were at Northern Vance on Tuesday night (see www.news observer.com for results) and must head to Oxford this Friday to face resurgent Webb.

The Warriors already were a handful, but now are hitting stride in the season's home stretch with the recent return of UNC recruit Isaiah Hicks, a 6-8 senior who's widely regarded as one of the nation's top power forwards.