Boys basketball: Loughlin nails last-second game-winner to lift Naperville North over Neuqua Valley

With this DuPage Valley Conference game tied at 53 and 45.7 seconds left, Naperville North coach Gene Nolan planned to get Carson Loughlin in an isolation at the elbow. He then would drive and kick it out to a teammate in the corner if Neuqua Valley sent help.

“But,” said Nolan, “like most plays at the end of a game, it’s not what you drew up.”

Indeed, with Loughlin being swarmed by Wildcats defenders and nobody open in the corner as hoped, he was forced to take a step-back shot. Amazingly, the shot went in, and the Huskies’ 55-53 lead would stand as the final score.

Although the clock initially wound down to zero, the Wildcats were ruled to have called a timeout with 2.8 seconds to go. But the subsequent full-court inbound pass went out of bounds at half-court, allowing Loughlin, who scored 11 points, to reflect on Naperville North’s makeup that helped lead to the victory.

“We have trust in ourselves,” Loughlin said. “We knew we were gonna execute. Neuqua's a great team. A great win. We're gonna build off it for future games.”

That would be beneficial to the Huskies (10-7, 2-3), who saw the Wildcats (7-8, 1-3) cut their 10-point halftime lead in half by the end of the third quarter and then take that lead for themselves early in the fourth. From there, the teams went back and forth before the possession that ended with Loughlin’s heroics, which lasted for over a minute of game time.

Neuqua Valley’s second-half surge best could be attributed to freshman Cole Kelly, who scored 26 of his 31 points during that time, including six of his seven 3-pointers and one dunk that caused a big reaction from the visiting student section. It also was helped by Mason Martin hitting two of his three 3-pointers in the third quarter to complete a nine-point outing.

“Second half, we played a lot better, a lot more tougher, executed a little bit more,” said Wildcats coach Todd Sutton. “First half was a disaster, so we'll take that second half anytime.”

Perhaps the Wildcats could have completed the comeback had they not allowed Naperville North’s Max Steele to score 22 points, which included four 3-pointers, one of them coming on a four-point play at the first-quarter buzzer. Jack Zitko also hurt Neuqua Valley, scoring all nine of his points in the first half on three 3s.

In any case, nothing changes the fact that the Huskies were the better team in the first half. Although the teams combined for 11 3-pointers, the hosts had one more two-pointer and 3-pointer, respectively, not to mention five free throws while the Wildcats had none.

“This was a great high school basketball game,” Nolan said. “And we feel fortunate to have won against such a great team and a great coach.”