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Neuqua Valley shooting drops Naperville North

Naperville North coach Jeff Powers knows his team needs some work on its perimeter defense, but he also knows the Huskies will not face great-shooting boys basketball teams every night.

But so far in the new season, Naperville North has indeed been burned by the outside shot. In Monday's season opener, Benet hit nine 3-pointers to knock off the Huskies, and Tuesday night it was even more of the same. Neuqua Valley connected on 11 shots from beyond the arc in a 66-54 win in Day 2 of the Hoops for Healing Tournament at Naperville North.

The Huskies (0-2) played a solid first half Tuesday and the score was 25-25 after two quarters. But the Wildcats (2-0) used an 18-2 run early in the second half to turn a 28-25 deficit into a 43-30 lead for the visitors. Demond George sank a pair 3s and teammate Joe Sieger added one from long range as Neuqua made 7 of 11 3-point attempts in the second half to win its second game in as many nights.

"We're working on figuring out how to defend," said Powers, whose Huskies continue tourney play Wednesday at Oswego against Oswego East. "The whole team is not moving and rotating and getting into what I call mental toughness defense. We're just not there yet.

"But tip my hat. We just played two well-coached teams with phenomenal shooters. And we did not get out to get to those shooters and that's my problem. We've got to work on that."

George, who made six of eight 3-pointers on the night, shared game-high scoring honors with Connor Raridon, with each Wildcat tallying 18 points. George did not score in the first quarter before dropping down a pair of bombs in each of the final three quarters.

He said the biggest difference in the second half was that the shots started to fall with more regularity and at the same time his team started to play tougher on the other end of the floor.

"We knocked down some shots and we actually started playing some defense," the senior returning starter said. "Helping each other out on drives and we were boxing out and we got rebounds."

Raridon, who also started last season, said it was a more aggressive approach that helped set the stage for the barrage of long-range shots that turned the tide.

"We started attacking the basket more and when we did that we'd kick out to open shooters and Demond got going from deep and I hit some from deep and it just started with creating shots for other guys and from driving and kicking," said Raridon, who also had 7 rebounds.

For the Huskies, Brian Dalton had 15 points and Mitch Lewis, one of three sophomores to get plenty of minutes in the game, had 10 points and 9 rebounds. Fellow sophomores Winston Elston and Cam Hardy each connected on 3-pointers for Naperville North.

"I'm very, very optimistic," Powers said. "I think we have some pieces. There's no cohesion yet. I think these young guys after a little seasoning are going to catch on and they're athletic enough they're going to make a difference."

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