Oswego East eliminates Neuqua Valley on 3 at buzzer

Starting senior center Justin Blazek and his Neuqua Valley boys basketball teammates left Joliet West Tuesday still in a state of disbelief.

After the Wildcats' tremendous effort as a No. 14 seed led No. 3 seed Oswego East throughout most of their Class 4A regional semifinal, the Wolves escaped 61-60 on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the top of the key by standout senior guard Ray J. Dennis.

"Yeah, You've got to be (in shock) after that," Blazek said.

"You see him (Dennis) running downcourt. There's four seconds left. We're up by 2. It's like you just think in your head, 'What could go wrong?' and of course, the worse happens."

The Wildcats (14-18) played like a team that won five of their last seven games this season. They took what appeared to be the lead for good when senior Sentwali Nalls hit his third 3 with 5:50 left for a 48-47 lead.

After sophomore John Poulakidas sank two free throws for a 59-55 Neuqua lead with 9.4 seconds, Dennis answered with a 3 and the Wolves called a timeout with 4.8 seconds left. Poulakidas quickly was fouled off the inbounds with 4.0 seconds and made the second of two free throws in the double bonus.

Out of timeouts, the Wolves quickly found Dennis, who scurried down the court and unleashed the winning shot.

"Yep, that's it. Every year it ends this way. Doesn't matter who we play. It ends the same way," Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton said.

"(Our players) responded every time. We showed great character. That effort tonight was good enough to play in a sectional final. We just didn't."

Neuqua sophomore Connor Davis led a balanced attack with 14 points. Blazek, Nalls and Poulakidas, who overcame two first-quarter fouls, each had 9 points and junior Patrick Hoffman added 7. Senior Hank Pelter and junior Donovan Navarro had 5 points apiece off the bench.

Oswego East (22-7), the Suburban Prairie Conference champion, will seek the program's second regional title Friday.

Dennis, who averages about 25 points, finished with 30. Fellow senior guard Demari Grant had 18 points with two 3s and 3 steals.

The 6-foot-2 Dennis had 13 points in the fourth quarter with his only 3s coming on the Wolves' final two possessions.

"A wild finish. Enough time for us to let a playmaker to make a play, and that's exactly what he did," Oswego East coach Ryan Velasquez said.

"Give credit to Neuqua Valley. We knew we were going to have our hands full just with the way they've been playing the last two weeks. They're young and they're going to be really, really good. I'm just proud of the resilience our boys showed tonight."

Neuqua Valley led 19-12 after one quarter and 30-25 at halftime. When Oswego East scored eight straight points, six from Dennis, to take a 39-37 lead during the third quarter, Neuqua responded with an 8-0 run and was back ahead 45-42 entering the fourth quarter.

Pelter completed the run with a three-point play off his putback of a missed free throw.

"We've grown from Day 1. We started as a bunch of infants and we grew to men tonight," Sutton said. "We were we really bad in November. We probably had about as much improvement as you could possibly get."

Even better days should lie ahead. Poulakidas was named to the all-DuPage Valley Conference team and Davis received special mention - the only two recipients from those categories that were not seniors or juniors. Nalls received honorable mention.

"(The underclassmen) definitely are going to feel this and come back with a vengeance next season," Nalls said. "We definitely had a good chance (to win). We've been the underdog all season so it was nothing new to us. We just came up short in this one."