Waubonsie Valley finds others to step up against Neuqua Valley
There was no panic when Waubonsie Valley's two leading scorers hit the bench early. Just the opposite, really.
Warriors starters Marcus Skeete and Ben Schwieger sat with foul trouble most of the first half Friday against rival Neuqua Valley. Their absence seemed to ignite players like Isaiah Smith, Adri Malushi, Justin Starks and, off the bench, Carter Langendorf and Mason Marinelli.
Alert and patient in the half-court and hassling the visitors defensively, Waubonsie Valley won the DuPage Valley Conference contest 60-44 in Aurora.
"I was just really proud of guys stepping up into roles," said Warriors coach Jason Mead. "They usually don't get as many minutes as they got."
"We have a lot of players on this team," said Smith, a 6-foot-1 junior guard. "So if somebody's out or somebody's not doing well we have plenty of other people to step up. We can stay poised, we know how to do this."
Waubonsie Valley (7-0, 2-0) led only 13-11 after one quarter but really made hay in the second with both Schwieger and Skeete on the bench with 2 fouls apiece.
Neuqua Valley (5-3, 0-2) shot 1 of 9 in that quarter - "Same thing all year," Wildcats coach Todd Sutton said - though Mark Gronowski, Connor Davis and Nonso Ogbuefi kept grabbing offensive rebounds.
Waubonsie's Smith, Malushi and Starks all collected second-quarter steals to disrupt the flow and create a 26-16 Warriors halftime lead.
"The thing about our team that I love is we are a good group of guys," Skeete said. "You saw tonight how talented these young dudes are and they can just play basketball. They went out and they had a really good game today. Ben, he's a tough man. Isaiah Smith played so hard."
Waubonsie forced 6 more turnovers in the Warriors' 20-point third quarter and played sound offensively. Tight, three-way passing from Smith to Skeete to Schwieger. Consecutive slams by 6-foot-5 dunkmaster Schwieger. A loose ball that reached Malushi for a 3 splashdown as time wound down.
Waubonsie had it all going on.
"You saw the amount of layups they had," Sutton said. "They just blew right by us, we were like standing still. They ran great offense. It's the best team we've seen this year."
Schwieger, who made 4 dunks, led all scorers with 17 points. Smith added 15 and Malushi 11 for the Warriors and Skeete finished with 7, Starks with 6. John Poulakidas' 12 points led balanced scoring for the Wildcats with Davis, Ogbuefi and Patrick Hoffmann each scoring 8 points and Gronowski adding 6.
"I feel like it's all about the effort that our team gives at practice," Hoffmann said. "Our effort, it's there at some practices, but sometimes it's not. The intensity at practice has been high but sometimes it gets down low. We've got to pick it up."