Neuqua Valley routs Hampshire to reach Wheeling title game
After falling behind Neuqua Valley 38-14 early in the third quarter, Hampshire put together a strong second-half rally in the semifinals of the 45th annual Hardwood Classic boys basketball tournament Friday night in Wheeling.
But despite cutting that lead to 44-33 early in the fourth quarter with a 19-6 run, that huge deficit proved to be too much to overcome for the Whip-Purs as the Wildcats pulled away down the stretch for a 57-37 victory.
With the win, Neuqua Valley (12-3) advances to the championship game Saturday at 8:45 p.m. against Glenbrook North. Hampshire (9-7) will play Fremd in the third-place game at 7:15 p.m.
A 3-pointer by Hampshire's Ryan Regalado (11 points) cut the gap to 11 points with 5:32 to play. But that was as close as the Whip-Purs would get as a 3-pointer by Neuqua Valley's Luke Kinkade (11 of his game-high 18 points in the first quarter) boosted the lead back to 51-35 with 2:25 to play.
"He (Kinkade) always plays well. We shared the ball and made a lot of good assists," said Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton, whose team shot 62.5% from the field to only 32.6% for Hampshire. "Colin (Gerrity) really runs the show for us very well, he got a lot of assists, and he involved a lot of his teammates."
Gerrity wound up scoring 12 points for the Wildcats followed by teammates Whitman Charboneau with 7 points, Joe Balgro (5 rebounds) with 6 points, and Krish Patel with 6 points.
Hampshire was led by Nick Louis with 12 points. But overall the Whip-Purs had a cold shooting night from the get-go despite hitting 5 of 12 shots from 3-point range.
"Surprisingly we didn't come ready to play. That's probably the first game all year I can say that where we just didn't look ready," said Hampshire coach Mike Featherly, whose team trailed 28-12 at halftime. "I like the fight. We gave up five points quick in the third, but we kept fighting and I thought a couple more shots would drop for us in the fourth quarter because we had some clean looks."
Kinkade is hoping his squad can put the finishing touches on a great tourney in the title game on Saturday night.
"We knew they (Hampshire) were an intense team so we just had to bring the intensity, match their toughness, and play good defense," said Kinkade. "We just have to bring 100% effort (Saturday), our shots will follow, and everything else will follow if we play intensely."