Neuqua Valley continues to struggle

After Wednesday afternoon's 67-51 defeat to DeKalb at the Hoops for Healing Tournament in Oswego, the Neuqua Valley boys basketball team's situation stood like this.

The Wildcats are 0-3 going into the tournament's last day on Saturday, much work for the team remains and the majority of the schedule is in front of Neuqua in which to do it.

"We're not remotely close to winning a game," said coach Todd Sutton. "We're not playing defense, we're not boxing out, securing rebounds or making shots. We shot 14 percent from 3-point range."

The afternoon has started out very well for the Wildcats against future DuPage Valley Conference opponent DeKalb (1-2).

The Wildcats made their first three shots of the game and took an 8-2 lead when Barbs coach Al Biancalana called a timeout just 1:13 into the contest.

DeKalb went on to shoot 43 percent from the field for the quarter and trailed just 18-15 at the end of it.

The Barbs' hot shooting hand continued into the second period when Zach Russell hit two unanswered 3-pointers to give DeKalb a 21-20 advantage and it wouldn't trail again.

Neuqua's John Poulakidas, who led the Wildcats, with 11 points, sank a basket with 3:20 remaining until halftime to pull his team to within 25-22. A free throw by Connor Davis made it 25-23 with 2:54 left on the clock. Davis finished with 10 points.

Then DeKalb proceeded to close the first half on an 11-0 scoring run that put the Barbs up 36-23, and the lead didn't go down to single digits until early in the fourth quarter.

"The whole second quarter was bad, turnover, turnover and more turnovers," Sutton said.

A good portion of the second half was spent at the free-throw line. Neuqua was 14 of 21 and the Barbs were 19 of 26.

Neuqua cut the DeKalb lead to single digits twice in the fourth quarter. Justin Blazek opened the final eight minutes with a basket that made it 52-43, Barbs. About a minute later, Patrick Hoffman's two free throw made it 54-45.