Neuqua Valley defense stops Naperville Central

Sure, the 3-pointers and all the points were great, but those were just gravy on top of the defense turned in by Neuqua Valley's Blaise Meredith.

The Wildcats senior knocked down a trio of 3s early on and finished with a game-high 16 points in the 53-49 win over Naperville Central in Hoops For Healing Tournament action at Oswego High School.

But what impressed Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton the most was his whole team's defensive effort for three-plus quarters, along with Meredith's all-around stellar defense.

"It was not just with steals, but with deflections, rebounds. Blaise was everywhere out there tonight," said Sutton, after his team moved to 2-1 on the new season. "Even if he didn't score I thought he had a phenomenal game."

But he did score. Meredith made all four of his shots in the first quarter, including three straight from beyond the arc as Neuqua Valley jumped ahead 16-5. The Redhawks' Nick Kramer hit a 3 at the buzzer to make it 16-8 after one quarter, but the Wildcats' defense continued to harass Naperville Central, which had won its first two games before coming up short Wednesday.

"We tried to come out with more intensity than we had in the first two games and come out and execute," said Meredith, who also had 5 rebounds, 2 steals and a blocked shot. "We did that for mainly three quarters, but then we almost collapsed. But we came here to play Neuqua defense."

The Wildcats held the Redhawks to single digits in each of the first three quarters and took a 38-24 lead into the fourth quarter. But Naperville Central rallied late as Kramer, Noah Swope and Daniel Raab each connected on 3s in the fourth quarter and made things interesting late.

"I don't think we ever got into any type of rhythm in the game," Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said. "There were a lot of fouls and it was tough for both teams at times. They were red hot early on so we kind of fell down, but we fought back. I was proud of our kids. They battled back and kept fighting. We'll learn from this."

Even with the loss Naperville Central had a chance to advance to the tourney finals, depending on the results from Wednesday's two late games. Nick Kramer paced the team with 12 points while Swope and Patrick Meier each had 9.

For the Wildcats, center Alex Filo had 10 points and 5 rebounds, while Nathan Scott added 8 points and 5 rebounds.

"It was a needed win. It was a must win," Sutton said. "Central played very well the first two nights and we struggled the first two nights. But obviously we have gotten a lot better. That's all we want is improvement."