Neuqua Valley clinches ninth league crown
Waubonsie Valley had the misfortune of catching Neuqua Valley after one of its poorest games in memory and a week of practice since.
"Whether they liked it or not I'm not sure," Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton said of his boys after a 37-point loss at West Aurora, "but we went back to November defensive fundamentals."
The result was a 65-36 win over visiting Waubonsie on Friday in south Naperville.
In its final Upstate Eight Conference season before joining the DuPage Valley in 2015-16, Neuqua Valley (22-4, 11-2) clinched its third straight Valley Division title and its ninth conference crown in the program's 17 years.
"We talked about it in December, it's going to be a marathon, you know, you're going to have some ups and downs and whoever wins the most games wins the conference. It was on the goal list, we wanted to win it," Sutton said.
Waubonsie Valley (10-15, 3-10) led 8-6 on 5 Luke Gregorio points and a Chris McGough 3-pointer at 3:02 of the first quarter. Neuqua rattled off a 13-0 run and held the Warriors scoreless until Darnell Smith's inside hoop at 3:12 of the second.
"Their man-to-man's pretty good, and then when they switched to that (1-3-1) zone we just couldn't really penetrate it," said Gregorio, who scored 8 points to McGough's 9. "We'd pass the ball on the wing too much, we didn't move the ball as much as we should have."
Neuqua forced 11-of-36 shooting from the floor and committed only 3 turnovers, one on a free-throw lane violation. Waubonsie turned the ball over 12 times - not bad, but too many against this opponent, this night.
"We've got to do a better job handling the ball, especially against a team like that - especially when they're holding our shot selection down, doing good at getting to the shooters and everything," said Warriors coach Chaz Taft.
Neuqua led 27-12 at halftime, then Connor Raridon helped bump the lead to 42-24 after three quarters.
Raridon, joining 2010 graduate Dwayne Evans as Neuqua's three-time conference champs, scored a game-high 17 points with 7 rebounds, 2 blocked shots. Jacob Cushing scored 15 points, Joe Sieger 10.
The Wildcats started seniors Oakley Bunce, Alex Edwards and Logan Wallace, who don't normally start. Wallace celebrated by swishing his first 3-point try.
"It meant a lot," said the 6-foot-1 forward. "Big game, and then big moments happen. I was just really happy I could come through for my team."
"It's really nice having everyone be able to play more and have people be introduced," said Cushing, who hit three 3-pointers himself.