Winning demonstraton from Raridon, Neuqua Valley
Neuqua Valley held an offensive clinic to capture the title of the 49th annual East Aurora Holiday Boys Basketball Tournament.
Shooting 63 percent from the floor for the game and 68 percent through three quarters - 64 percent on 3-point shots - Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton employed his bench the rest of the way as the Wildcats scored a season high to beat East Aurora 92-72 on Tuesday.
"Fifteen assists off 19 baskets in the first half - I mean, we're making the extra pass and getting wide-open shots. Basketball gets real easy when you get those type of shots," Sutton said.
Tournament MVP Connor Raridon, shaking off a 6-point effort in Monday's victory over Geneva, scored 20 points to lead six Wildcats in double figures. Fellow starters Zach Lendino, Jacob Eminger, Joe Sieger and Demond George, plus second-team post Oakley Bunce, each scored between 10 and 14 points.
"I didn't score much the other night, but I just wanted to come out and stay confident with my shot and really just look to get involved, get others involved and I did that tonight," said Raridon, 8-of-10 shooting with 6 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in three quarters.
Neuqua Valley (13-1) was in a game early. East Aurora (5-9) held within 14-10 at 3:29 of the first quarter, a fast-paced game the Tomcats prefer.
Neuqua Valley closed the quarter on a 10-2 run and took off from there, and on defense shifted from a 1-3-1 zone to a 1-2-2.
"We started off pretty poorly and had to make a couple adjustments," Sutton said. "(Assistant) Coach (Mike) O'Toole's the zone coach there, so he tinkers with the zone a little bit."
There was no zone like Neuqua's zone. After going 10 of 13 from the floor in the first quarter the Wildcats were 9 of 15 in the second, 5 of 8 on 3-point shots. Sieger and Raridon each bagged 2, George 1.
Plus, Neuqua beat the Tomcats downcourt for easy baskets. Neuqua ended the half on three straight 60-foot George passes to Eminger and Lendino all alone, virtually cherry-picking.
"We just played under control and we found the open man, pushed it up the court and since we played under control we got easy layups," said Eminger, holding twine from the net Neuqua cut down.
The Wildcats led 24-12 after one quarter, 49-22 at halftime and 71-42 after three quarters, too late for East Aurora's Anthony Peters to make much of a dent with his fourth-quarter 20 points behind six 3-pointers.
"We had them 80 percent from the 3-point line the first half," said East Aurora coach Wendell Jeffries, "and it's tough to beat a team like that."