Neuqua Valley returns to winning ways

There was a lot of anxiety built up prior to Neuqua Valley's nonconference game Wednesday night in Naperville.

For one thing, the Wildcats hadn't played in 10 days, and for another, they were looking to get back on the court after falling to Glenbard East in a Christmas tourney finale for their lone loss of the season.

On top of that, center Kareem Amedu got plenty anxious when visiting Plainfield Central decided to play the hosts man-to-man. With Amedu setting the tone early with 11 of his 17 points in the first half, Neuqua (11-1) knocked off Plainfield Central 72-48.

Dwayne Evans tallied 18 points as one of four Neuqua players to score in double digits in the game.

"I tried to get it going as early as possible," said the 6-foot-5 Amedu, who also helped contain the visitors' strong inside attack on the defensive end. "We haven't had many teams try and play us man and we wanted to bring the intensity from the start."

Neuqua assistant coach Michael O'Toole might have been a tad anxious as well, getting his one shot at running the squad for head coach Todd Sutton, who gives his top assistant one game annually to skipper the Wildcats. But O'Toole, who came to Neuqua after three years as the head man at Joliet Catholic, remained mostly calm as the hosts grabbed a 10-2 lead and eventually built the margin to 38-22 at the half.

"We did a lot of nice things and we did a real good job getting the ball inside," O'Toole said. "Kareem was real strong with the ball, and Dwayne is obviously very good."

Guard Teo Ervin hit a couple 3s while tallying 8 of his 11 points in the first half for Plainfield Central (11-5), but the visitors did very little inside until Winston Williams heated up some in the second half to finish with 15 points.

"We talked about trying to do what we wanted to do and limit the things they like to do," said Plainfield Central coach Steve Lamberti, whose team was missing starting guard Jon Dubose to injury and reserves Dan and Arthur Gage to illness. "But we kinda let them do what they wanted to do."

Rahjan Muhammad gave Neuqua a big boost off the bench with 13 points and 4 steals, and Kyle Pembrook knocked down a pair 3-pointers on his way to 10 points. Evans, meanwhile, looked to dish off to his teammates much of the night but still finished with 18 points, 11 boards and 1 blocked shot.

"Kareem did a real good job and as a team collectively we did a good job of boxing out," said Evans, noting that the Wildcats focused on defense and rebounding more than usual after losing to Glenbard East. "It's always good to bounce back after a loss."