East Aurora duo overwhelms Neuqua Valley
East Aurora’s Letrell Viser missed practice early this week, and per coach Wendell Jeffries’ rules that meant he missed his usual start Thursday against Neuqua Valley.
In the second half the senior guard dubbed “Snoop” missed barely anything. Viser scored 21 of his 26 points in the second half and teammate Ryan Boatright scored 36 to beat Neuqua Valley 78-71 in Aurora.
Rallying from a 17-4 deficit to defeat the Wildcats for the second time this season, East Aurora (17-5, 9-2) clinched at least a share of the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division title, its first UEC title since the 1999-2000 season.
Neuqua Valley (20-5, 7-3) has conference games remaining against South Elgin and Metea Valley. The Wildcats need help from Lake Park, which hosts East Aurora on Feb. 18, to continue their streak of three straight titles.
“All I was thinking of was a conference championship, because we ain’t won it in 11 years,” said Viser, who missed Monday’s practice, concerned about a pinkie dislocated last Friday at Waubonsie Valley. “So we’ve got to bring this conference championship back here.”
Viser hit 4 straight third-quarter shots, including a fadeaway jumper for East Aurora’s first lead, 48-47.
In the fourth quarter Neuqua 20-point scorer Sam Johnson scored on an inbounds play for a 55-53 Wildcats lead.
Viser countered with a 3 and was fouled on the shot. He added the free throw, then swished a 25-foot 3 for a 60-55 lead the Tomcats wouldn’t relinquish. Boatright went 8 for 10 from the line to help seal it.
“We gave up 50 points second half,” said Neuqua coach Todd Sutton. “You deserve to lose when you give up 50 points in a half. That’s a disaster.”
The first half was anything but. Neuqua repeatedly capitalized inside with Alex Karkazis. The 6-foot-2 post player scored a career-high 23 points, 10 of them in a first quarter Neuqua led 22-14. The Wildcats led 39-28 at halftime.
East Aurora’s defense, its rebounding — and Viser — picked up.
“In the first half we did everything that we wanted to. We slowed it down and we got the ball to half-court and we got in our sets,” Karkazis said.
“And then once the second half started the chaos set in and that’s when we struggle. We couldn’t get the ball to half(court) for awhile, and we stopped boxing out.”