Neuqua Valley defense stops WW South

Like an iceberg, you don't see 80 percent of a basketball team's performance, namely the things that take place at practice that, hopefully, turn into what is on display on the court.

Anyone who's seen Neuqua Valley play over the past week can guess what the emphasis has been behind closed doors - a commitment to defense. The result of that emphasis were front and center again on Friday night as the Wildcats notched their third consecutive DuPage Valley Conference victory with a 66-56 defeat of visiting Wheaton Warrenville South.

"Defensively, we were very good tonight," said Wildcats coach Todd Sutton. "Wheaton plays the best motion offense in the DVC and we did a real good job against it. We have been working on defense an awful lot at practice, a whole lot. Defense, rebounding and fundamentals."

The pivotal defensive stretch for Neuqua (9-15, 5-7) came in a nearly 11-minute span that bridged the third and fourth quarters as they held the Tigers (15-9, 7-5) to one field goal in that time while Joe Sieger, Blaise Meredith, Jacob Cushing and Will Stankus combined to forge an 18-6 run that turned a 32-31 deficit into a 49-38 lead with 3:30 to play.

"We have made a more concentrated effort in practice to work on team defense," said Jacob Cushing, who had 14 points, including a breakaway dunk, and 6 rebounds on senior night. "That's going to carry us - team defense."

Behind the hot shooting of Matt Waldron, who hit four 3-pointers in the game's first 11:30, the Tigers led by as many as 6 points at 17-11 a minute into the second quarter. The contribution of Waldron, who coach Mike Healy said "has been playing very well," was crucial because leading scorer Eric Rasch was lost for the final 12:30 of the first half after picking up a pair of charging fouls in a 19-second span less than four minutes into the game. The Tigers also got a pair of buckets off the bench from Dillon Durrett in the second quarter as they trailed 29-26 at the half.

With the Wildcats paying more attention to Waldron after his hot start (he went the game's final 21:30 without even attempting a shot), WW South couldn't create any type of consistent offense. They finally broke through with three minutes left in the game when Jeran Simpson hit back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 50-44, and they crept even closer at 54-50 on Rasch's layup with two minutes to play. From there, however, they were forced to foul, and Neuqua's Sieger and Ryan Phillips combined to make 12 of 14 free throws in the final 90 seconds to close out the game.

"We did a good job extending the game, got extended possessions, took good shots confidently, kept fighting, kept battling - I liked the way we fought back," Healy said. "Give credit to Neuqua, they knocked down free throws. We kept trying to extend the game, but they held us off."