Neuqua gets 20th win
Winning basketball can come down to the simplest things.
“When the ball goes in we look pretty good,” Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton said on Friday.
Neuqua took an early double-digit lead and withstood surging Lake Park to win the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division game 69-59 in Naperville. The Wildcats have won 20 games in 10 of the last 11 seasons.
Neuqua Valley (20-4, 7-2) remains a half-game behind East Aurora in the Valley after East beat Waubonsie Valley 74-60 on Friday.
Home losses to both those teams helped steel Neuqua’s resolve, as the Wildcats leapt to a 19-6 lead over Lake Park (11-11, 2-7).
“We only play like seven (games) here a year, so we’ve really got to come out here and protect when we do get to play here,” said Neuqua forward Jim Stocki, who scored a game-high 19 points. “We really wanted to stop that losing streak at home. We got off to a good start and we were able to finish it out.”
Stocki hit two 3s in the opening spurt, Tyler Sutton added another, Sam Johnson had a steal and dunk and Jabari Sandifer stole the ball and laid it in, one of Lake Park’s 9 first-quarter turnovers.
Once the Lancers controlled the ball and passed to the baseline they got something going and trailed 22-15 after a quarter.
“We didn’t want to settle for jump shots, we wanted to get inside, try to get more layups, more free throws, try and get to the line,” said Lancers forward Zach Cooper, who finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 5 of the Lancers’ 17 free throws.
Neuqua’s early cushion, and its depth, proved too much for the Lancers, who got 12 points apiece from Dominique Spencer and Eric Eichholz.
Lake Park cut a 33-25 halftime deficit to 4 twice and was within 44-39 at 3:35 of the third quarter.
Stocki canned a 3-pointer, Lake Park turned the ball over twice, Neuqua’s Pat Kenny scored on a putback and Stocki scored again to push Neuqua’s lead to 51-39.
Lake Park clambered back within 51-45 entering the fourth quarter, but Neuqua’s Ryan McDermott hit his third 3-pointer of the game to begin a decisive 9-2 run.
“You’ve got to battle them every possession,” said Lake Park coach Josh Virostko. “We did some, but five possessions is 10 points and obviously five possessions we didn’t do enough.”