Good timing as Neuqua tops Naperville N.

Neuqua Valley's McKenzie Hughes knew what to do even though she's only a freshman.

The forward wasn't supposed to guard Naperville North's Haley Krentz in the final seconds as the Huskies worked for a shot to win the game.

But when Krentz caught an inbounds pass with 2.6 seconds remaining and found herself open for a 15-footer to the left of the lane, Hughes improvised and came flying up to her. The freshman got there in time to block the shot, preserving a 42-41 girls basketball victory for host Neuqua Valley in a nonconference season opener for both teams Wednesday night in Naperville.

"I went up and I pretty much thought they were going to call a foul," Hughes said, "but it was all ball and it came out to a good win."

"The girl just made a good block, I guess," Krentz said. "That's what the ref said."

The Wildcats scored the final 5 points to pull out the game. Freshman guard Danielle Davis hit what turned out to be the game-winner when she split a pair of free throws with 27.8 seconds remaining.

"So you had a freshman make the free throw and a freshman block the last shot," Neuqua Valley coach Mike Williams said. "How about that? Those are good signs."

Senior forward Raquel Davis connected on three 3-pointers and finished with a game-high 13 points for the Wildcats. Danielle Davis and senior forward Viv Kindt added 10 apiece for the winners.

It was a tough loss for Naperville North, which led most of the game.

"It's a good sign, but we're not really interested in a moral victory," Huskies coach Jay Wachtel said. "Obviously, we're super happy with competing like that. I don't know if anyone kept the stat of how many minutes we were winning, but it had to be 28 or 30 of 32 or something like that, so it was very frustrating."

Naperville North received 9 points apiece from senior center Danielle Witkowski and freshman guard Sammi Lenert.

Lenert came off the bench to score 7 in the first quarter to spark a 13-0 run that gave the Huskies a 13-4 lead.

Naperville North led 15-8 after the opening quarter and 24-18 at halftime before taking a 37-34 edge into the final quarter.

But Neuqua Valley outscored the Huskies 8-4 in the fourth quarter with its freshmen recording all of its points. Danielle Davis scored 5 and Hughes 3 in the final period to lift the Wildcats to the win.