Sandifer layup lifts Neuqua

For 30 minutes Tuesday’s boys basketball game with Neuqua Valley at Waubonsie Valley was mainly ragged and streaky.

The last couple minutes, though, were dynamite.

Eliminating a 4-point Neuqua lead down the stretch, the Warriors tied the score with 13 seconds left to play on Jared Brownridge’s 3-pointer from the left corner under heavy pressure.

With no timeout or hesitation, Neuqua’s Jabari Sandifer dribbled pell-mell the other way for a game-winning layup with five seconds left.

After a Waubonsie timeout Bryan Jefferson’s 39-foot heave between two Wildcats defenders bounced off the bracket, and Neuqua escaped enemy turf with a 50-48 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division win in Aurora.

“I took the ball out, passed it to Darien (Miskel), he gave it back to me, and I just went coast-to-coast,” Sandifer said. “At the end of games, we just want to get it and go and get a shot without calling a timeout. We have to make a play.”

It looked freelance, but it was not.

“We work on that drill, end of a quarter, a lot,” said Wildcats coach Todd Sutton. “When the opponent makes a shot we go right into transition offense. Jabari made a play — players make plays.”

Neuqua Valley (13-9, 4-4) was led by Tyler Sutton’s 18 points and Sandifer’s 16. Waubonsie (13-6, 5-2) countered with 17 by Brownridge and 16 by Bryan Jefferson. But there weren’t a ton of plays made early.

That’s to be expected, as Todd Sutton noted, when teams know as much about each other as these two Indian Prairie District rivals. Over the last 14 seasons they’ve played 26 times, including Waubonsie’s 66-61 win Dec. 7.

Warriors coach Steve Weemer was troubled by allowing Sandifer the coast-to-coast layup, but he was more troubled with a 19-12 deficit after a quarter, in which Tyler Sutton and Pat Kenny headed 8-of-12 field-goal shooting.

Waubonsie struggled back to lead once thereafter, briefly, on Brandon Malby’s one-handed putback for a 30-28 lead at 6:12 of the third quarter.

“We didn’t win or lose the game there at the end, we lost the game way back in the first quarter. We weren’t ready to play. They were,” Weemer said.

“We should have came out defensively a lot harder than that,” Brownridge said. “That’s something we’ve got to learn, so next time we come out against a team, come out playing defense and play to the end. Hopefully that pays off.”