Neuqua Valley 56, South Elgin 48

For one team it was the Mona Lisa, for the other, a Velvet Elvis.

That described Friday night's first quarter, when Neuqua Valley played a near-perfect period, jumping to a 13-0 lead over visiting South Elgin, which missed its first 7 shots, had 6 turnovers and committed 8 fouls. In fact if Josh Glenn hadn't hit a 3-pointer with three seconds left, the Storm would have suffered the ignominy of being blanked in the quarter.

In the end the opening eight minutes proved to be the difference as the Wildcats held on for a 56-48 Upstate Eight Conference defeat of the Storm.

"We didn't get off the bus in the first quarter," said Storm coach Chaz Taft. "We battled back, but we're a second-year program. Being happy being competitive is for first-year programs."

Neuqua coach Todd Sutton pointed to his squad's work on the boards in the pivotal opening quarter. The Wildcats didn't allow the Storm any second shots, while Danny Pawelski and Derek Raridon combined for 3 offensive rebounds and 11 of the Wildcats' 13 points.

"We really dominated on the defensive glass early and that kept them from doing anything on offense," Sutton said.

After extending the lead to 18-3 in the first minute of the second quarter, the Wildcats (17-6, 6-1) seemed content to run out the clock. The Storm (9-11, 2-5) wasn't ready to go down without a fight, and shooting of Glenn and Kyle Osborne got South Elgin as close as 20-15 before Neuqua cobbled together an 11-3 run to end the half for a 31-18 lead.

The Storm still trailed by 11 at 41-30 after three periods, but the long-range shooting of Glenn and Adam Hodge repeatedly knocked the deficit to 6 before Alex Sanchez's scoop layup with a minute left trimmed the lead to 51-46. From there, however, Raridon and Brad Keeler combined to hit 5 of 6 free throws in the last minute to keep the Storm at bay.

"Give credit to South Elgin, their defense made it 'blah' for us," Sutton said. "They played us very physical and we couldn't score. They undid our offense."

As it turned out, the final three minutes of the third quarter may have been as telling as the first quarter. Trailing by 9, the Storm had five chances to cut further into the deficit but came up empty on five straight possessions.

"We didn't capitalize on key turnovers, we didn't capitalize down the stretch, we didn't get the loose-ball plays we usually get," Taft said.