Neuqua Valley passes Fremd's physical test

Neuqua Valley could have been the victim of foul play on Tuesday night.

Four Wildcats had 3 fouls by halftime in their quarterfinal against Fremd at the 36th annual Elgin Holiday boys basketball tournament. All four of them picked up their fourth fouls in the third quarter.

But Neuqua (11-0) never lost a lead it took early in the second quarter on a 5-point sequence, which naturally involved a foul, and survived and advanced to today's semifinals with a 71-61 victory at Chesbrough Fieldhouse.

“Fremd did a really great job and it was a physical game out there,” said Neuqua senior Jim Stocki, who managed to avoid foul trouble to score 22 points and grab 16 rebounds. “We did a great job of adjusting and a lot of guys made a lot of big plays.”

Stocki, Sam Johnson (16 points) and Tyler Sutton (12 points) combined to go 18-for-23 at the free-throw line to help Neuqua reach today's 8 p.m. semifinal against Wheaton North (6-4), a 66-61 winner over Buffalo Grove.

Neuqua finished 25-for-32 on free throws and Fremd (7-5) was 20-for-30.

“In the first half, in the first quarter I was worried,” Neuqua coach Todd Sutton said with a smile after being asked if he was concerned about having enough players left at the end. “We were racking up the fouls and we did a poor job of adjusting. Very poor.”

But Sutton thought the reserve help of Pat Kenny, Peter Catchings, Darien Miskel and Ryan McDermott kept the Wildcats from unraveling.

“We put bits and pieces together and people had to step up, especially in the third quarter,” Sutton said. “We needed every points from every person.”

Officials ruled one of Tyler Sutton's three 3s was released before an off-the-ball foul was called on Fremd. Alex Karkazis, who wound up being the only Neuqua player to foul out, scored on a drive off the inbound pass for a 24-19 lead.

Neuqua led 37-26 at halftime but Fremd kept clawing back behind the drives of Quinton Brown (22 points) and inside play of 6-foot-5 Jack Konopka (8 points, 13 rebounds).

Jim Scharfe added 11 points and Ken Leonard and freshman Riley Glassman added 7 apiece as the Vikings got as close as 53-50 with 5:53 left.

“I thought we competed tonight and I was very pleased with our effort and attitude,” said Fremd coach Bob Widlowski, whose team plays BG at 5 p.m. today. “We put ourselves in position to win the game.”

And that was with leading scorer Zach Monaghan out for the third straight game as he recovers from a car accident. Konopka had to leave with 1:41 left and didn't return after he turned his left ankle.

Glassman's rebound basket got Fremd within 62-58 with 1:10 left but Neuqua made 9-of-12 free throws the rest of the way.

“We won't see a team as physical as Fremd is in our conference play and maybe the rest of the season,” Stocki said.