Neuqua finishes against Oswego
Ten and one, Mike Williams shrugged, "that's all right."
"If we start to finish," said the Neuqua Valley coach, "I think we're going to get scary."
The eighth-ranked Wildcats kept it rolling Wednesday, beating Oswego 59-42 at the Oswego Holiday Classic behind Megan Doody's 23 points.
Neuqua (10-1), which likely plays unbeaten Hampshire in Saturday's championship, matched its win total from all of last year.
Doody isn't complaining.
"We have a huge target on our backs now. I like the feeling that people are out to get us," Doody said. "Last year and this year, it's two totally different years. It's just so much fun out there with the freshmen. I'm really enjoying it."
Neuqua flirted with a blowout all game, running out to a quick 7-0 lead. The lead bulged as wide as 12 in the second quarter, but Oswego (6-5) was within 44-37 with 3:14 left in the third quarter after a basket by Paige Harmon.
Doody answered with a 3-pointer, igniting a back-breaking 11-0 run. Oswego went scoreless for nearly nine minutes spanning the third and fourth quarters.
"Our main priority is to get as many steals as we can and to finish," Doody said. "That's our main thing this year that we're focusing on is if we get the steal that's great. But we got to finish. We have a young team. It's the little things that really matter."
Oswego turned the ball over 29 times under Neuqua's constant withering pressure. Losing starting guard Alexis McClain to a leg injury in the closing seconds of the first quarter didn't help the Panthers any.
"She's kind of our spiritual leader," Oswego coach Chad Pohlmann said, "and everyone follows her lead. We did OK, the girls competed, but we just turned the ball over too many times. Give credit to Neuqua for stymieing us."
As much pressure as Neuqua puts on teams defensively, it doesn't stop when the Wildcats have the ball.
Doody knocked down five 3-pointers, scoring 17 of her 23 points in the first half.
Alexa Wilde, whom Williams noted is on track to break Lindsay Wisdom-Hylton's steal record, added 11 points and 9 rebounds, Amber Smith 8 points and 10 boards and sophomore Allison Hedrick came off the bench with 6 points.
Doody's release on her shot is super-quick, Neuqua hits teams with athletic players one to five and few teams move the ball faster than the Wildcats.
"This is probably the best passing team we've had ever," Williams said. "That's saying something.
"We're pressure full speed. Situation right now, we're going 100 mph on defense and we have to tell them to dial it back to about 90 on offense just to slow it down a bit."
Williams, no coaching novice, knows it can get better.
"Our typical teams that have been really good early in the year we do really good things and get a lot of opportunities, but we're really not finishing," Williams said, "and all of a sudden it starts to click. By midseason we start to do some good things and win some games we shouldn't. Right now we're OK. We're getting closer and closer."