Lake Park springs trap, but Neuqua Valley escapes
A potential trap awaited Neuqua Valley on Saturday, a road trip to Lake Park the day after the Wildcats' emotional win over East Aurora.
To beat Neuqua Valley requires nearly perfect basketball. Improved Lake Park made it a game, but when the Lancers needed perfection it proved elusive.
Neuqua Valley (23-1, 8-0) inched closer to its third straight Upstate Eight Conference title, winning 66-53 behind a 16-7 run in the last six minutes in Roselle.
"It shows us we can play with the big teams, but we've still got to do a better job of finishing it and closing it down at the end," said Lake Park three-year starting guard Matt Drufke, who scored 10 points. Dominique Spencer led the Lancers with 15 points followed by Kyle Phelan and Zach Cooper with 12 and 10 respectively. Adam Hansen, Drufke and Cooper each grabbed 8 rebounds.
"We had our chances to tie it up and bring it back, but we just didn't do it tonight," Drufke said.
Lake Park trailed 50-44 entering the fourth quarter when Phelan hit a 3 from the left corner. The Lancers held Neuqua scoreless on four straight possessions - but committed 3 straight turnovers.
Cooper made 2 free throws as Lake Park (11-12, 3-6) pulled within 50-46 with 5:41 to play, but Neuqua guard Rahjan Muhammad drilled a 3-pointer and the Wildcats shrugged off the threat. Lake Park never came closer than 10 points the rest of the way.
"If we can score on at least two of those (possessions) it's a 2-point game in the fourth and then we can actually make some plays and try to get back in the game," said Lake Park coach Josh Virostko. "To beat a really good team you've got to take advantage of those, and we didn't."
He said another key was not extending an early lead while Neuqua shook off what Virostko called the "hangover" from Friday's game. After all, 6-16 Waubonsie Valley got East Aurora on Saturday, 41-37.
All five Lake Park starters scored to go up 21-18 after the first quarter. Lake Park led 25-23 at 5:31 of the second quarter and was tied 31-31 before Neuqua ended the first half with three defensive stops, 2 Kareem Amedu free throws and a Dwayne Evans turnaround jumper for a 35-31 halftime edge.
"Give credit to their defense, they really, really shut us down, way below our (72.5) average," said Neuqua coach Todd Sutton. "They played very tough, very physical, ran real good offense that first quarter. They just lit us up, just pinpoint accuracy on their passes, great cuts and they knocked down shots."
Content early to give sterling assists to Amedu - who scored a game-high 17 points - and maybe still a little gassed, Evans took control in the second and finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 7 blocked shots.
Muhammad scored 14 points and Kyle Pembrook added 10 points and 8 rebounds for the Wildcats, who committed a minuscule 5 turnovers after making 23 against East Aurora. Their first turnover came at 2:59 of the third quarter.
"They got that little run," Muhammad said of the Lancers, "they got their spurt, and I think we never lacked intensity. I think we were fine. We never lost composure. I thought we were OK, and I was happy we were able to pull out the win."