Waubonsie Valley storms back, wins thriller over Neuqua
Overcoming adversity.
That was the theme after Waubonsie Valley rallied in the second half Friday night to stay unbeaten with a thrilling 56-50 DuPage Valley Conference victory over rival Neuqua Valley in Aurora.
The visiting Wildcats exploded for 22 points in the second quarter to take a 32-23 lead at the half, but the Warriors (14-0, 4-0) were unfazed, reclaiming the lead in the third quarter and hanging on from there with a combination of great defense and clutch free-throw shooting.
“Just picking it up. We’ve played against adversity before so we just handled the adversity well, came together and just picked it up at the defensive end,” explained senior forward Tre Blissett, who finished with 14 points including a 6-for-6 effort from the foul line in the fourth quarter.
“Defense translates to our offense. They’re a good team over there. A great coached team, super solid and they’ve got some of the best players in the area over there, so it feels great. It’s Neuqua week.”
For the most part, Waubonsie Valley’s defense was on track, holding Wildcats’ sharp shooter Luke Kinkade to just 5 points on a single 3-pointer and a pair of free throws, but those points all came in the visitors’ big second quarter, a 22-10 advantage for Neuqua Valley (12-4, 3-1). Nathan Fiore led the way for the Wildcats, scoring 9 points in that key quarter – after knocking down a 3 in the first quarter – on his way to a team-high 15 points off the bench.
But the Warriors tweaked their pressure defense somewhat after the intermission and used a 19-8 run in the third quarter to build a 42-40 lead heading into the final quarter.
“It’s not so much a rivalry for me,” Warriors coach Andrew Schweitzer said. “It’s more another example of how we handle adversity. I know there’s some chatter that our strength of schedule, yada, yada yada…at the end of the day, when we’ve been challenged by good teams, and when there’s adversity, these kids have responded. They keep responding and they refuse to lose.”
Junior guard Tyreek Coleman led a balanced Warriors attack with 18 points which featured a pair of 3s and a perfect showing on four free throws.
“Our shots weren’t falling in the second quarter but that’s the game. We knew eventually they’d start falling,” Coleman said. “So, it just came down to getting defensive stops. This is a nice win to start the 2024 campaign and it will boost us to keep it going on. You always want to protect your home court whatever way you can get that done.”
Moses Wilson had 8 points and pulled down some big rebounds late as the Warriors closed the game with an 11-5 run after Neuqua had drawn even at 45-all on a layup from Joe Balgro, who tallied seven of his 11 points in the fourth quarter.
“This is a great win,” Blissett said. “Beating Neuqua is always big and the environment was great. And being down by 9 at halftime…that felt amazing to just come back from that adversity.”
Schweitzer was thrilled to pull out the win on Friday and knows the Wildcats will be ready when the teams square off again next month.
“They’re very good,” the Warriors coach said. “Kinkade is very rarely going to have a shooting night like tonight. So, I already know that come Feb. 9 we better be ready for a whole different Luke Kinkade. They’ve got seven guys that can play and seven guys that can shoot.”