Neuqua Valley hands Waubonsie 1st DVC loss
Down on their luck and starting to hear voices, the Neuqua Valley boys basketball team was in dire need of something positive. Friday night’s thrilling 61-56 win over Waubonsie Valley was exactly what the Wildcats needed with the postseason just around the corner.
Neuqua Valley rallied from a 36-28 third-quarter deficit to prevail in this back-and-forth battle and hand the conference champion Warriors their first loss in the DuPage Valley Conference.
“We needed it because we were down in the dumps here,” Wildcats coach Todd Sutton said after his team improved to 21-8 overall and 6-3 in the DVC while snapping a skid. “We’ve been struggling lately. They’ve been taking a verbal pounding lately, so they needed some positivity. We’ve been on the struggle bus for about a month.”
The Wildcats had one-point leads at the half and after three quarters, but had to recover after Waubonsie Valley (23-2, 8-1) opened the third quarter with an 11-2 run for a 32-24 lead. Tre Blissett had two quick buckets for the Warriors to start the second half and Moses Wilson followed with a putback and then a 3-pointer.
But the Wildcats, who entered the night with four straight losses, called a timeout, picked up their intensity on defense and then countered each Warriors’ run with a clutch shot and then some hot free-throw shooting in the fourth quarter to avenge a loss to their rivals earlier this season.
“We just got more physical,” senior guard Luke Kinkade, said explaining his team’s defensive turnaround midway through the third quarter. “They were setting screens, our help defense was atrocious at the beginning of the third quarter. But coach called a timeout when they went on an 11-2 run, and after that we were more physical, the help defense was there and we got rebounds.”
Neuqua Valley also got hot on offense. After missing his first four shots, Kinkade hit a trio of 3s in the second quarter and added a another 3 in the third quarter on his way to 17 points. Teammate Colin Gerrity also tallied 17 points in the game, but 14 of those scores came in the second half. He knocked down a pair of 3s in the second half and went 6-for-6 from the foul line in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.
“Waubonsie’s our biggest rival. They’re No. 4 or 5 in the state, [with] one loss. We were coming into this game with nothing to lose. We put it all out on the floor and we grinded it out and won. It’s a huge win. We needed this. Our heads were down, our morale was down. But we got together as a team. It’s a great win going into the postseason. We needed that.”
The Warriors, who had their school-record 23-game winning streak snapped by Bolingbrook last Saturday, have lost two in a row. They had four players score in double figures led by Blissett’s 14 points and 12 from Wilson. Tyreek Coleman, who scored 31 against Bolingbrook, had 11 points and 4 assists at Neuqua and Matt Sessom had 10 points.
“Here’s what I told the kids, ‘let it fuel you moving forward because we can still accomplish plenty of good things,’” Warriors coach Andrew Schweitzer said. “I’m not worried. The reality is they’re a very good team. The conference is loaded. It stinks to lose but at the end of the day we’re the DVC champions and we’re pretty happy about that.”
Neuqua Valley also got a big boost from Joe Balgro’s 10 points and 4 assists and two timely fourth-quarter 3s from reserve Luke Pallaschke.
“This is a huge win,” Kinkade added. “They’re a top five team in the state and their zone is great. They’ve got some great players … the momentum that this gives us going into our game tomorrow and the playoffs is huge.”