Neuqua turns away South Elgin without Doody

There's little question that Megan Doody is the floor leader of Neuqua Valley's girls basketball team.

But on Wednesday night in South Elgin, the young Wildcats stepped up to the challenge of winning without their senior standout, who missed the Upstate Eight Valley game with an illness.

Sophomore Amarah Coleman led four Neuqua Valley players in double figures with 13 points and the Wildcats got off to a quick start then held off South Elgin's second-half surge for a 66-60 win, Neuqua's seventh straight victory.

"We had 14 players able to play tonight and we knew we were going to play all 14 of them," said Wildcats' coach Mike Williams, who frequently substituted five players at a time. "Every one of them came in and made plays."

The No. 7 Wildcats (13-1, 3-1) dominated early, using a full-court press to help cause 11 South Elgin turnovers in the first quarter that allowed Neuqua Valley to jump out to an 18-8 lead, which the Wildcats extended to 32-21 by halftime.

"Our defense keeps us in games and once we get ahead it helps keep our momentum up," said Coleman of a Neuqua Valley team that caused No. 18 South Elgin 31 turnovers on the night. "We work on it hard for every game."

Neuqua Valley had a good shooting night (26-for-56), but South Elgin struggled on its own floor, going just 17 of 54. And while senior Loyola signee Becca Smith led all scorers with 27 points for the Storm, she also struggled shooting, hitting just 8 of 25.

"We threw the ball all over the place tonight," lamented South Elgin coach Tim Prendergast. "Our guards are our strength but I'm really disappointed in our guard play tonight. I can't give Neuqua credit for all those turnovers; our guard play was just very sloppy. You have to pass over that press, you can't try to dribble through it."

South Elgin (11-6, 2-4) caused Neuqua some problems as well as the Wildcats committed 34 turnovers of their own but the Storm couldn't capitalize on enough of them to get back in the game.

Down by 16 midway through the third quarter, South Elgin did mount a comeback, whittling the lead to 45-36 by the time the fourth quarter started. But back-to-back baskets from Shay Robinson (10 points) gave the Wildcats a 60-46 lead with 3:46 to play and South Elgin couldn't draw closer than the final score.

"We jumped right out early and did some good things tonight," Williams said. "We're still trying to figure out some mixes and matches but to jump out early like we did tonight really helped."

Najee Smith added 12 points and freshman Allison Hedrick had 11 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals for Neuqua Valley. Anna Tracy added 15 points and Savanah Uveges had 8 for South Elgin.