Neuqua Valley off to good start

Beating Bolingbrook 68-65 on Tuesday, 6-0 Neuqua Valley claimed its second win over a higher-ranked opponent.

The Wildcats defeated Morton to win the York Thanksgiving Tournament, sprinting to a 20-point lead before Morton tightened it up in a 65-63 Wildcats victory.

Neuqua Valley has shown all the ingredients of a very good team - perimeter sharpshooter Derek Raridon, powerful Dwayne Evans and Kareem Amedu, ball distributor Ryan Wagner, 2-man Rahjan Muhammad.

Evans was MVP at York and Raridon made all-tourney, but Wagner's 7-assist average had Neuqua coach Todd Sutton calling him the key to that 4-0 start.

Then there's the depth. A slew of players return from Neuqua's furthest encroachment into the state playoffs, a 2008 supersectional.

Sutton sees something else on top of that.

"We have a very intelligent team (in) GPA and court sense he wrote in a Wednesday morning e-mail.

"Most importantly, they practice very hard. I know we will be getting better every day when a team works this hard.

"Also," he wrote, "it is a sign of a bunch of winners when they practice so hard. These kids just know how to win."

Here come the other 'Cats: In one night West Chicago eclipsed what it accomplished in an entire DuPage Valley Conference season last year.

The Wildcats (3-3) posted a stunning 57-42 victory last Friday at Wheaton Warrenville South, the first win in that gymnasium for coach Kevin Gimre in his eight years at the helm.

After going winless in the DVC last season and winning only once the year before, the Wildcats set a much better tone for the season with the key early win.

"It's huge," Gimre said. "And it was nice that we were able to enjoy it for a while and not have to play another game that Saturday."

Six-foot-six junior center Tyler Griffith led the effort with 26 points and 14 rebounds. Junior guard Chad Driscoll added 16 points.

Gimre, however, was also quick to note the defensive efforts that came from Tony Quarto, Al Robbins, Clark Hudmon, Ryan Karg and Kevin Peterson.

It's taken an entire team to forge a three-game winning streak. Even in the Wildcats' two previous games they were competitive in losses to Waubonsie Valley and Oswego by a combined 5 points.

Six games in, West Chicago's already showing how competitive it plans to be this season.

"Even the first three games we played, I thought the kids did a nice job," Gimre said. "They're believing they can be in ballgames and perform."

Playing for pride: Lisle's seventh annual Playing for Pride Shootout brings in 18 teams for nine games in two gyms, starting with Monmouth vs. Perspectives at noon to Lisle vs. Hartsburg-Emden at 7 p.m.

A one-day event originally pitched as an essentially small-school rural-against-urban showcase, six teams will be staying overnight this year, and some will watch the Bulls-New Jersey Nets game Saturday night, Lisle athletic director Dan Dillard said.

Playing for Pride brings Driscoll back to Lisle, where the Highlanders started 2-1 over Thanksgiving. Driscoll will play Aledo - the school whose football team eliminated Lisle from the Class 3A playoffs - at 1 p.m.

Timothy Christian also comes back to face Argo at 6:15 p.m.

In his first year as the Trojans' head coach, longtime assistant Jack LeGrand has taken over where Jeff Powers left off, leading an active group to a 4-1 start.

Guard Reggie Greenwood led the Trojans' 3-0 Thanksgiving effort at Lisle. The 5-foot-8 junior averaged 11.3 points, 3.7 assists and 4.7 steals for an all-tourney berth.

Wheaton Academy has Hope: The Warriors are also at the Lisle Shootout, playing the Chicago team at 4:30 p.m.

The Warriors come off Tuesday's 73-44 win over Wheaton North that made them 6-1. Wheaton Academy has also beaten Wheaton Warrenville South 50-42, then took its only loss the next day, 53-34 to Walther Lutheran.

The Warriors have an imposing front line of 6-5 Eli Nupanga, 6-4 Anthony Ritchie and 6-8 Tim Rusthoven, who is averaging 18.3 points, 8.9 rebounds and 4.7 blocks.

At the outset coach Paul Ferguson said the key to this team's success would be defense. Holding Lisle, Illiana Christian and Wheaton North to combined 33-of-138 shooting in its last three games, Wheaton Academy is getting it done.

"We've been locking up on teams pretty good and challenging some of their shots with our size," Ferguson said. "The other thing is we've been really unselfish offensively. We're fortunate to have a group of kids that buys into the team concept."

Among a group of guards that includes Eric Albaugh, Brian Pell and Tim Streets, junior Quinn Gorski has emerged as a defensive stopper.

"He's one of those guys you just can't get away from," Ferguson said. "He's in phenomenal shape. That's probably his biggest attribute."

No points, no problem: Naperville Central senior Danny Ondik didn't score a single point in the Redhawks' 68-48 win over West Aurora in last week's DuPage Valley Conference opener.

After the game, however, Redhawks coach Pete Kramer singled out his heady point guard as a main reason why the team pulled away.

"I thought Ondik did a great job," Kramer said. "He just ran the show, played smart. If he does that for us, we don't need him to score."

West Aurora applied game-long ball pressure, especially at the top of the defense with senior guard Markus Cocroft.

But while the Redhawks (5-1, 1-0) committed several early turnovers, the miscues dropped once Ondik and Drew Crawford began handling the ball almost exclusively.

Ondik showed his ability to score the next night against Waubonsie Valley when he tallied 10 points in a 45-37 nonconference win.

Either way - scoring or not - Kramer believes Ondik's importance to the Redhawks is critical as they begin their drive to win a second straight DVC title.

"He does all the things we need him to do to win games," Kramer said.

Edge living: Of Hinsdale South's five games this season, three have gone to overtime.

Fortunately for the Hornets, they won all three games. And for a young team, that kind of confidence-building has been a big boost this early in the season.

Three sophomores - Joe Petrak, Andy Nkansah and Jason Viane - and freshman Brock Benson contribute in a rotation featuring only a few seniors, including Josh Ward and Mark Romiti.

"Winning those close games early can only help our confidence," coach Vince Doran said. "We're already pretty battle-tested."

Hinsdale South (3-2) beat Nazareth and Argo in one overtime and then nipped Glenbard West in double overtime. In all three games the Hornets needed a final defensive stop to either force the extra period or win the game.

Under intense pressure, the Hornets keep coming through.

"It's been an exciting season already," Doran said. "We just keep battling."