Neuqua Valley finds spark in third quarter, beats Naperville Central
Friday night's boys basketball game between visiting Neuqua Valley and Naperville Central looked like one of those contests that would go down to the wire.
However, the third quarter arrived and the Wildcats put their game into overdrive, racking up 21 points en route to a 73-52 victory. and further tightening the race for the DuPage Valley Conference title.
"Everyone did a great job with rebounding, fastbreaks and hitting their shots," said Neuqua senior Jayden Dean, who led his team with 14 points. "We came in with a lot of energy and carried it over to the second half."
Five Neuqua players scored in double digits.
Naperville Central's James Jopes opened the third quarter hitting for two points to pull his team to within 35-32. The Wildcats (17-6, 6-2) proceeded on a 10-0 run to go up by 13 and the Wildcats stayed in the double-digit zone the rest of the game. Dean scored 10 points during the quarter.
Neuqua led 56-42 at the end of 24 minutes with Erikas Gurskas' basket putting his team up by 20 early in the fourth.
"Everyone was making their cuts, their shots and playing defense," said Wildcats senior Cole Vonnahme, who scored 12 points as did teammates Gurskas and Nick Lendino..
Naperville Central (17-6, 6-2) led after one quarter, 17-16.
Midway through the second quarter, two straight 3-point baskets by Neuqua's Chris Srbinov gave the Wildcats a 29-25 advantage and what turned out to be a permanent lead. The junior scored 8 of his 11 points during the second period.
"I try to provide a spark offensively off the bench," Srbinov said.
It was a busy week for the Redhawks with a victory over St. Charles East on Tuesday and a comeback win over DeKalb the following night.
"Credit (the Wildcats), they played awfully well," said Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer. "I think we hit a wall mentally and physically. We came back from 16 down to beat DeKalb.
"If we had gotten all three games that would have been a bonus. We needed two out of three and that's what we got," he said.
Jopes led the Redhawks with a game-high 16 points. Jonah Hinton had 14.