Neuqua's Stocki rising in York tourney

There was a good reason Jim Stocki didn't get much of a chance to show what he could do last year for Neuqua Valley.

Make it an all-state, Division I reason named Dwayne Evans.

“You don't want to be Dwayne's backup,” Neuqua coach Todd Sutton said with a smile about one of St. Louis University's top reserves.

But Stocki and the rest of the Wildcats are making the most of their opportunities where Sam Johnson is the only returning starter from a 27-3 team. Stocki had 27 points and 12 rebounds Friday in a 74-60 win over Hersey in the 38th annual York Thanksgiving Tournament at Dick Campbell Gym in Elmhurst.

“Last year in practice going against a first-team all-stater every day,” Stocki said, “if you weren't improving then you weren't trying.

“I felt last year we had extremely competitive practices. All of us as a group have just grown a lot from that.”

It's showed so far as the Wildcats (3-0) will try for their fourth straight title in the final year of the tourney at 6:30 p.m. today against York (3-0).

Senior Alex Karkazis had 12 of his 17 points after halftime and had 9 rebounds. Johnson added 10 points and sophomore guard Jabari Sandifer had 8 points and provided a defensive spark.

“I think we're flying a little bit under the radar, but in the locker room we expect to win every single game,” Stocki said. “Obviously we lost a lot and people are looking for a letdown, but we keep trying to build on what everybody did before us.”

Stocki had 17 points as Neuqua took a 30-21 halftime lead. But all five starters contributed in the first 3:45 of the second half with the 6-foot-2 Karkazis scoring 8 points to help extend the lead to 46-28.

“Sam (Johnson) wasn't in foul trouble and Jabari started to take over a little bit and made some great passes and great plays,” Sutton said. “In the third quarter Karkazis was ripping rebounds down. He had springs in his shoes tonight.”

Junior Justin Jobski scored the first 8 points for Hersey (1-2) and finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds. Connor Miklasz missed his first nine 3s and 17 of his first 22 shots but in the fourth quarter was 4-for-7 from behind the arc and 5-for-8 from the field to finish with 24 points.

Miklasz's 3 with 3:32 left got Hersey within 64-55 but a turnover and missed 1-and-1 kept it from getting closer.

“I'm disappointed with what we're doing offensively but I know that will improve,” Hersey coach Steve Messer said after his team had 24 turnovers turned into 28 Neuqua points. “But the defense should already be there and it's not.”