Stocki, Neuqua shoot their way through Storm

The South Elgin boys basketball team hung around like a persistent cough, but guard Jim Stocki proved to be Neuqua Valley's best antibiotic.

Neuqua's 12-point, second-half lead was trimmed to 3 points when South Elgin's Dillon Gardner drove for a layup with 3:12 to play, but Stocki responded by connecting for 3-pointers on consecutive possessions to give the Wildcats the cushion they needed to eventually secure a 57-44 road win in the Valley Division of the Upstate Eight Conference.

“Those two threes Stocki hit were huge,” South Elgin coach Chaz Taft said. “We were down 3, now we're down 9. That was kind of the game right there, we thought.”

The Wildcats (15-1, 5-1) sank 10 shots from 3-point range in just 17 attempts. They were paced by Stocki, who shot 6 of 9 from long range and led all scorers with 24 points to go with his 7 rebounds.

“I haven't been shooting great the last couple of weeks, so I really hit it hard in practice,” Stocki said. “I got into a rhythm in the second half and was able to knock some shots down. We're a good shooting team, so if we have open shots we're going to take them.”

Stocki's 3-pointers were made possible, in part, by electric sophomore guard Jabari Sandifer. After Gardner's bucket, Sandifer drove the right side of the lane only to kick the ball out to Stocki in the right corner, where he drained a wide-open attempt.

When Gardner's baseline jump shot at the other end rimmed out, Sandifer snared the defensive rebound and moved up court. He then rebounded a missed shot by teammate Alex Karkazis and again spotted Stocki on the perimeter for an open look, this time on the left edge of the arc.

“We had him with 5 assists and they were all big and they were all late,” Wildcats coach Todd Sutton said of Sandifer.

South Elgin (8-8, 2-3) led 7-2 before Neuqua launched a 19-7 run fueled by a pair of 3-pointers from guard Tyler Sutton (8 points). However, the Storm answered with a 7-1 run just before the half. Senior Sam Sutter (15 points) scored on a baseline drive with a second left to tie the game at 21-21.

The game remained tied in the third quarter until the Wildcats threatened to run away via a 12-0 burst that was powered by a pair of 3-pointers by Stocki and an old-fashioned three-point play from senior Sam Johnson (10 points).

South Elgin pulled within 4 points of the lead early in the fourth quarter when forward Matt Hattendorf scored in the paint on 3 straight possessions against Karkazis, who was playing with 4 fouls.

“We got some baskets and got on a run there, but we had some miscommunications on defense down the stretch that really bit us in the butt,” Hattendorf said. “We missed some switches and (Stocki) got some shots. And when his shots were contested he was still able to knock them down.”