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Naperville Central picks up 1st win

When you're 0-7, nothing comes easy.

Just ask the Naperville Central boys basketball team, which appeared ready to cruise to its first victory with a 10-point lead and 4 minutes, 24 seconds to play against visiting Neuqua Valley on Friday night. Then the Redhawks suffered through a 4-minute scoring drought that featured three missed front ends of one-and-one free-throw opportunities as the Wildcats pulled within 6 points.

But like they had done all night, Cam Dougherty and Chris Conway made the big plays down the stretch to secure Naperville Central's first win of the season in a 56-49 DuPage Valley Conference victory.

"The win was really important, it takes a lot of pressure off," said Conway, Naperville Central's 6-foot-9 junior center who stuffed the stat sheet to the tune of 16 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. "Now we can stop thinking about it and just start playing."

Dougherty, who finished with a game-high and personal-best 29 points, and coolly made the free throws that ended Naperville Central's late-game scoring drought, tipped his cap to Conway's play.

"I may have scored 29, but Chris' activity is what put us over the top," Dougherty said. "When we have him playing like that, it really helps us out."

For his part, Redhawks coach Pete Kramer said both Dougherty and Conway will be central to any subsequent success his squad has this season.

"They've got to play like that for us to be successful," Kramer said. "They have to get the ball into the basket and tonight they did."

An inability to put the ball in the basket plagued Neuqua Valley (4-5, 0-2) all night, as they attempted 61 field goals but converted just 19. The worst stretch came in the first 10 minutes of the second half as the Wildcats made just 3 of 19 field-goal attempts and watched the Redhawks (1-7, 1-1) turn a 31-29 halftime edge into a 49-35 lead with 6 minutes to play.

"We have a lot of dry spells," said Wildcats coach Todd Sutton. "I don't know if it was (Naperville Central), we just do this a lot. Tonight we may have regressed a little bit. We took more bad shots tonight than we have all year, but we're learning."

"The biggest part was the defensive end," said Conway, who teamed with Dougherty to score all 14 of Naperville Central's points in the pivotal quarter. "We had to lock it down because we knew our offense would eventually get some points. Only giving up 6 points in the third quarter was big."

The first quarter had four ties, the last at 12-12 before Dougherty and Conway combined for 7 straight points for a 19-12 lead. Neuqua Valley trailed 24-17 before John Poulakidas and Sentwali Nalls put together their own 7-point run to knot the game. Poulakidas, who scored 18 points, tried to shoot the Wildcats back into the game with a pair of fourth-quarter 3-pointers, but Neuqua Valley's own 3-minute scoring drought midway through the frame prevented a stunning comeback from coming to fruition.

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