Girls basketball: Waubonsie Valley pulls away from Neuqua in 2nd half to clinch DVC title
Maya Cobb is one of the unsung heroes of the Waubonsie Valley girls basketball team.
Tuesday night at Neuqua Valley, the junior’s hard-nosed, inspired play paced the Warriors to a conference championship.
Cobb, for all intents and purposes, kept her team in the game in the first half against the Wildcats with her scoring, rebounding and leadership.
Then in the second half, she led a 16-0 third quarter run that saw Waubonsie Valley pull away to earn a 64-50, DuPage Valley Conference title victory.
“She played really well (tonight),” said Warriors coach Brett Love of Cobb. “Today before the game me and her got some shots up, and I worked with her and talked to her about her confidence. She came out and played great — when she plays as well as she did tonight, she’s kind of our X-factor.”
Cobb scored 6 points and more importantly grabbed 6 boards in the first half when the Warriors were struggling with some shooting woes.
She finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds in the contest.
“Just focusing on my shot when I have the ball,” said Cobb of her outstanding performance. “Get my momentum going, get my rhythm going.”
Cobb added that knowing her team came in with a chance to win the conference crown gave she and her teammates a little extra incentive.
“We knew if we won we would seal conference,” she said, “so we treated it like it was a regional. We all came in (ready) to have our best game.”
Neuqua Valley, which lost to Waubonsie Valley 70-25 earlier in the year, came out with a different mindset Tuesday and almost came away with an upset win.
“We played hard, we gave it our best shot,” said Wildcats coach Mike Williams. “Our kids didn’t back down.
“They (Waubonsie Valley) are a good team, a great team. We’re young, but we’re not going to back down from anybody, and we fought tonight. We had confidence and got after it — our kids are resilient."
Junior guard Nalia Clifford led the way for the Wildcats (9-19, 2-6) with a game-high 19 points.
“She played a heck of a game,” added Williams of Clifford. “We did everything we could, but you’ve got to make some layups against great teams like this. You’ve got to make your layups and make your free throws, but that’s what happens sometimes. We’ll be OK.”
Waubonsie Valley led 31-25 at halftime but used a 16-0 run after intermission to open up a 22-point lead. Cobb, Danyella Mporokoso (18 points), Maya Pereda and Lily Newton hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back 3 pointers to propel the Warriors charge.
Neuqua Valley cut the deficit to 56-43 in the fourth quarter after a 3 by Taylor Dobry but couldn’t get any closer.
Alexis May scored 8 points and had a game-high 13 rebounds for the Wildcats, while teammate Michayla Stone added 8 points.
Maya Pereda pitched in with 11 points for Waubonsie Valley (24-1, 8-0).
“Feels good,” said Love of the conference-title win. “We won it last year, went undefeated and that was the goal this year as well.
"I’m very proud of the work the kids have put in. I was hoping that someone would step up and challenge us (as Neuqua Valley did tonight), because we’ve been getting a little too comfortable. This was good and I love the way they came out and responded after halftime."