Neuqua Valley shoots by Batavia
Neuqua Valley made 29 of 32 free throws — including all 14 in the fourth quarter — to turn a tight game into a 71-57 victory over Batavia on Friday at the Montini Christmas Tournament.
That’s a cool 90.6 percent, not to mention quite a bit better than Batavia’s 13 for 25.
Wildcat senior Malia Smith made 7 of her 8 free throws, joining Kai Moon (8-8), Myia Starks (7-8), Niki Lazar (4-4) and Najee Smith (3-4) with excellent efforts at the line.
“Especially with the new rule change with hand checks, we practice free throws a lot,” Malia Smith said. “That was definitely one of my goals to get better this year because last year my free throws were just OK.”
Neuqua Valley (11-4) will play for fifth place at 4:45 p.m. Saturday against Fremd while Batavia (11-4) is in the seventh-place game for the second straight year, this time against Huntley at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Both Neuqua Valley and Batavia are playing its second tournament in as many weeks after taking second and third, respectively, last week at Oswego. By the time they finish their games Saturday they will have each played in 8 games in a 15-day stretch.
“We haven’t been getting to the line much which is interesting because they are calling it tight,” Neuqua Valley coach Mike Williams said. “But for the most part we’ve been shooting good from the line. I’m happy with that because we are tired right now. We’re in survival mode.”
Both teams came out Friday with full-court pressure. They battled through 11 lead changes and 8 ties in the first half, which ended with the Wildcats scoring the final four points on a Bryce Menendez jumper and a Niki Lazar putback for a 39-36 halftime lead.
Batavia was effective early with its ball reversal, swinging it from one wing to the other and then inside to Hannah Frazier or Erin Bayram, both who finished with 15 points and both had double-doubles with 13 and 10 rebounds, respectively.
Bayram also drew a charge on Moon in the second quarter, Moon’s fourth foul, and on the next possession assisted Jessica Koch for a 34-33 lead. The Bulldogs’ last lead came moments later at 36-35 on Mackenzie Foster’s stickback.
“I thought we did OK, we could have done better,” Smith said. “We were a little slow at the beginning. We need to come out stronger next time. They are definitely a very good team, but I think our trapping and quickness on defense really kind of stumped them a little bit.”
While Neuqua Valley never trailed in the second half, the Wildcats also couldn’t shake Batavia until the final minutes. A 3-pointer from Moon to open the fourth quarter gave the Wildcats a 55-46 lead, but Bayram nailed a jumper and Liza Fruendt a trey to bring the Bulldogs within 55-51.
Fruendt had another 3 to cut Neuqua’s lead to 59-54 with three minutes left. The Wildcats took the air out of the ball, and when Batavia started fouling, the Wildcats made every free throw they took.
“It didn’t feel like it was a double-digit game,” said Batavia coach Kevin Jensen, noting how his team has progressed from losing by 30 to the Wildcats last year.
“It felt like it was a two-posession game and we got caught where we had to foul and take that gamble. Same thing as last night (66-64 loss Trinity). There’s just not a lot of room for error. I told the girls I like where we’re at. I don’t want to give the same speech two nights in a row, but we’re playing really good teams, and we’re going to play another really good team tomorrow.”
Fruendt led all scorers with 19 points.
Malia Smith paced the Wildcats with 15 points, Moon and Lazar both had 14 and Starks 13. Those four also combined for 13 of the Wildcats’ 18 steals as they forced 25 Batavia turnovers.
“Batavia did a great job,” Williams said. “They were running the diagonal passes and trying to wear us out. Our quickness does cause people some issues.”