Neuqua Valley's Ogbuefi sneaks up on Metea Valley
No one saw Nonso Ogbuefi coming except for one person: Nonso Ogbuefi.
The Neuqua Valley senior reserve scored 11 of his team's fourth-quarter points, including nine straight to help the Wildcats flip the script on their DuPage Valley Conference rival and host Metea Valley for a 54-46 win Friday night.
Despite limited action in the first half and just two points, Ogbuefi had one of those feelings.
"In the third quarter we came out and on the bench, I told Tariq (Asim), 'I'm about to go off,'" he said. "And I went off. As soon as I got that first bucket, it was easy. So I kept doing more of it."
Facing a deficit all night, Neuqua Valley entered the final quarter trailing 38-35, but its active defensive and fast and fluid offense helped quickly turn that around.
Ogbuefi got the ball with space in the post early and often in the quarter, and he took care of the rest, scoring nine straight points on short-range releases.
A three-point play during the stretch gave his team a 42-38 lead.
"It just felt good," Ogbuefi said. "When I got the ball, I just turned and looked and didn't have anyone next to me so I just went up with it."
The Wildcats defense finished things off from there, forcing eight turnovers in the final quarter, including one on four straight Mustangs possessions.
Playing without two starters (guard Myles Levy and forward Alex Moreno), Metea Valley ran out of gas late, said coach Isaiah Davis.
"They stepped up and made the plays they needed to make," Davis said of the Wildcats. "Some of my kids are tired; we're a bit short-handed right now. I'm proud of the kids and how they battled, but give Neuqua credit they made the shots they needed to make and got the stops they needed to get."
Trying to make up the difference for the Mustangs was senior guard Kymari McBride, who dominated the first half to pace his team to leads of 16-10 and 26-24 after the first and second quarters, respectively.
McBride finished with a game-high 17 points, but only three of those came in the second half as Neuqua Valley found a way to limit his looks.
"We mentioned at halftime he looked like the MVP of the conference so we better start focusing on him a little bit more," Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton said.
With the focus on McBride, the Mustangs' Tahj Morgan stepped into the spotlight, scoring 6 points in the third quarter to help his team keep its lead.
Neuqua Valley was having a tough time finding the basket through three quarters.
The Wildcats were coming off a double-overtime victory over Bolingbrook on Wednesday, when star junior John Poulakidas scored a whopping 49 points.
Metea Valley seemed ready for that and limited Poulakidas and company throughout.
But in the fourth quarter Ogbuefi emerged as a fresh target and the Wildcats halted any Metea offense.
"Coach said we should pressure harder, so we started doing that more," Ogbuefi said. "We got more steals and then more fastbreaks, started scoring more. It felt good."
Amid the turnovers and an energized crowd, Metea Valley succumbed to its emotions in a pair of instances, as the team picked up two technical fouls down the stretch, giving Neuqua Valley a couple free points.
Two late 3-pointers from Ethan Tai, who finished with 12 points, were not enough to spark a late charge for the Mustangs.