Neuqua Valley knocked from peak
Few outside of Carpentersville - Dundee-Crown, to be specific - could have seen this coming.
Tuesday at the Class 4A Northern Illinois University supersectional, Dundee-Crown defeated heavily favored Neuqua Valley, the No. 2-ranked team in Class 4A, 64-59 in front of 2,949 fans at the NIU Convocation Center.
Ending Neuqua Valley's season at 31-2 and at the same stage as last year's playoff advancement, Dundee-Crown (24-5) took advantage of Neuqua's 6-of-24 first-half shooting and held it together against the Wildcats' pressure defense.
"Dundee did us in," said Wildcats coach Todd Sutton. "I thought they played a great game, a great floor game. The point guard (Jeff Beck) was outstanding.
"But poor shooting obviously got us in trouble. Twenty-five percent (first-half shooting) won't win you any games."
Dundee-Crown, which advances to Peoria for a Class 4A semifinal against Waukegan, a 68-46 winner over Glenbrook North, never shrunk from Tuesday's challenge.
"We knew we could come in and hang with them and play with the best of them," said Beck, who scored a game-high 29 points on 10-of-17 shooting and 8 of 11 free throws. "We just wanted to come out aggressive and set the tempo."
That they did, though both teams came out ragged before Dundee-Crown scored 8 straight points to post a 12-6 lead after a quarter.
"I thought we were all well-prepared," said Neuqua senior Derek Raridon, one of the Wildcats' few first-half sparks who finished with 16 points. "We worked hard in practice up until tonight. We just came out real flat."
Guard Drew Sutton agreed: "We came out real flat and didn't guard anybody. They came at us, we just kind of took it."
The Chargers took it up a notch, leading 20-8 midway through the second quarter on a long deuce by Aaron Reams.
Dundee-Crown led 28-17 at halftime. Neuqua junior Dwayne Evans scored on a putback, but the Chargers scored 5 quick, crucial points on a Beck 3 followed by a Neuqua foul and a Beck banker for a 33-19 lead.
Neuqua matched baskets, but it wasn't good enough against a Chargers team that never wilted. Henry scored 15 points with 10 rebounds and Kimbrough had 9 boards, 4 blocks.
"We've been a second-half team all year," said Evans, Neuqua's honorable-mention all-state forward who scored a team-high 18 points. "When we started to make a run they'd hit a 3 or they'd get a block, which they were doing all game."
Beck's roller in the lane gave the Chargers a 43-31 lead entering the fourth quarter. The Wildcats' full-court press that figured in their sectional title caused 6 fourth-quarter turnovers, but Dundee-Crown never let them closer than 5 points, including 53-48 with 2:01 left to play.
Making 15 of 19 fourth-quarter free throws, Dundee-Crown led 62-53 when Neuqua's Chris Sutter hit a 3 with 14.4 seconds left. Two more Beck free throws secured the win.
"We outrebounded them 34-27 and I thought that was a big key," said Chargers coach Lance Huber. "Then our guys did a great job of executing the game plan and limiting them from shots in the paint. We are very excited and we hope that we can keep it going."
Neuqua Valley was, too.
"Obviously this one is the ender, but 31 wins, 2 losses, playing in the supersectionals at Northern - it's as good as it's ever going to get," Todd Sutton said of a team that blew away its prior wins record of 26.
As good as it gets? Well, to a point.
"I hope we get downstate next year, I don't care if it's 12 wins," Sutton said. "But this is the dream season. We were very spoiled."