Neuqua Valley wins a blowout
Neuqua Valley drafted a blueprint for the rest of the season on Tuesday.
Beating Rolling Meadows 87-52 in the second-round of the 35th annual Pepsi/Daily Herald Elgin Holiday Tournament, the Wildcats' high-flying first half was their top performance thus far, coach Todd Sutton said.
Neuqua Valley scored 34 points in the second quarter, on 12-of-15 shooting, to lead the Mustangs 52-23 at halftime.
"This is where we want to be at," said Sutton, whose team faces 10-0 Fremd in an Elgin semifinal at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Neuqua Valley (9-0) was a blur of hands in passing lanes, outlet passes, transition sprints downcourt, lay-in finishes or the odd dunk ahead of Rolling Meadows (4-6).
"I think that's our style," said Neuqua forward Dwayne Evans, who had 9 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 steals and 13 points, among five Wildcats between 10 and 16 points. "It worked really well today and in practice. I think we just really worked cohesively in passing the ball really well."
"Like Dwayne said, we love playing our transition game, just love running up and down," said center Kareem Amedu, who scored 16, including a two-handed dunk five seconds in.
Amedu made all 7 of his shots. He was in good company. The Wildcats were 37 of 50 from the floor, including 7 of 12 from 3-point range led by Jim Stocki at 4 of 4.
"Everybody contributed in whatever it was - box-out rebound, a jump shot, a layup, defense," said guard Rahjan Muhammad, who scored 8 of his 10 in the second quarter.
Rolling Meadows' Richie Kemph, a 6-foot-3 senior guard, was Sutton's defensive focus. Kemph averages 21 points with 29 in Monday's win over Batavia. Guarded by Kyle Pembrook, on Tuesday Kemph scored a team-high 14 followed by point guard Brian Nelms' 12.
No blame, though - the Mustangs were simply hit by a train in navy and gold.
"That's by far the best team I've seen in high school all three years I've been on varsity," said Kemph, who had the Mustangs within 18-12 on a drive to end the first quarter.
Neuqua forced 4 turnovers in less than two minutes of the second quarter during an 11-0 run that began the ascent, and midway through the third the Wildcats led 64-26.
"Obviously, we didn't put a very good showing on them, so that's disappointing," said Rolling Meadows coach Kevin Katovich, who'll see Buffalo Grove at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday. "We were hoping to at least make it competitive and we weren't able to do that. The good news is we get to play again tomorrow."