Neuqua Valley outlasts Bartlett

There is a clear front-runner in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division girls basketball race after Thursday night and to no one's surprise it's once again Neuqua Valley.

The Wildcats, who went undefeated last season in winning the division, are off to another fast start as they improved to 5-0 and 8-1 overall with a hard fought 48-41 win at Bartlett. It was the Hawks' first conference loss as they fell to 5-4 and 2-1.

"It seems like we have been playing Bartlett for 100 years," Neuqua coach Mike Williams said. "And I know (Bartlett coach) Denise (Sarna) is always going to have her team ready to play us tough. This is just one of those games where we just felt like we needed to just survive and escape out of here with a win any way we could."

The game was tied 25-25 at halftime before the Wildcats were able to go on an 11-2 run to start the third quarter and pull out to a 36-27 lead.

Neuqua forced the Hawks into 13 second half turnovers.

"We started to figure some things out defensively," Williams said. "We were trapping more in our press and we were able to cause a few turnovers to get us going."

Myia Starks had 17 points and 4 steals to lead the Wildcats.

"We settled down on defense in the second half and that's what got us going," Starks said. "They kept attacking the middle in the first half and beating our press. So we made an adjustment and settled back a little and didn't play so tight up on them."

The Hawks rallied to pull back to within 38-37 with 6:20 left to play on a Kelly Harris basket. However, Neuqua responded with a 10-2 run down the stretch to pull away. Starks made 7-of-8 free throws in the fourth quarter to help seal the win.

"I have been off the last couple games," Starks said. "So I was just trying to do any thing to help the team."

After scoring 16 points in the first quarter the Bartlett offense struggled the rest of the way. The Hawks shot just 9-of-29 (31 percent) from the field over the final 3 quarters.

Kaitlin Brohan had 11 points in the first half for the Hawks, but was shutout in the second half. Harris led the Hawks with 12 points.

"One of the biggest things we have struggled with so far this season is our offense will just shut down sometimes," Sarna said. "We don't have that one all-star player to go to, but we have several kids that are capable of scoring. They just have to realize that they all need to contribute."