Free throws nearly cost Naperville Central a win
Naperville Central should not have had too much trouble Tuesday at Neuqua Valley, leading by 11 points with less than three minutes remaining and in the double bonus.
But the Redhawks made just 7 of 19 free-throw attempts in the fourth quarter, and Neuqua Valley closed within 54-51 with one minute remaining.
"We sure we made it a lot harder than it needed to be," Naperville Central girls basketball coach Andy Nussbaum said.
Neuqua Valley was unable to close the gap any further, however, and a free throw apiece by Lucy Schmid and Hannah Swarm in the final 53.6 seconds were all the Redhawks needed to preserve a 56-51 victory.
Naperville Central fans weren't the only ones sweating out the final moments.
"Oh man, we've had other games like this and it's actually been really problematic for us," Swarm said. "We definitely want to go practice free throws and make sure we're practicing when we we're tired, like at game speed, not just, oh, shooting free throws."
After trailing by as many as 8 points midway through the first half, Neuqua Valley took a 28-27 lead with 5:46 remaining in the third quarter on a three-point play by Makinzie Dehaan. Naperville Central answered with a 24-12 run to take its biggest lead of the game at 51-40 with 2:45 left in the game.
However, while Naperville Central was struggling from the line, 3-pointers by Rachel Lee and Kai Moon, three free throws by Moon and Myia Starks' driving layup got Neuqua Valley within 54-51. But that was as close as Neuqua could get.
"This game was really important to us after losing to them at the beginning the season," Swarm said. "We knew we had what it takes to beat them."
Moon led Neuqua Valley (14-6, 8-3 DuPage Valley Conference) with 19 points and Starks added 14, but the Wildcats had trouble solving Naperville Central's 2-3 zone.
"We actually played a box-and-one the first time, and we picked the wrong one," Nussbaum said. "That defense really slowed the game way down. We only scored 34 points and we missed a lot of shots we should have made.
"Tonight, we attacked them early, we played a little man-to-man, but it seemed like of all the things we tried the 2-3 zone worked the best. We stayed with it until they were killing us with 3-pointers at the end."
Sophomore Mia Lakstigala scored 18 points and Swarm and Sara Teteak each had 14 as Naperville Central improved to 16-7 overall and 7-2 in the DVC, one game back of league-leading Wheaton Warrenville South. Naperville Central and WW South have yet to meet.
"Like the coach likes to say, we control our own destiny," Swarm said.
"We just can't stub our toe along the way," Nussbaum said.