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Girls Basketball: Neuqua Valley girls down East Aurora
Updated: January 24, 2012 10:48PM
The Neuqua Valley girls basketball team needed to get back into rhythm after its recent dry spell that saw the Wildcats lose four of their last six games.
Though things started slowly against visiting East Aurora on Tuesday, the Wildcats relied on their pressing defense to turn into offense and defeated the Tomcats 49-30 in the Upstate Eight Valley.
“We came out a little sluggish,” said guard Megan Doody. “But coach (Mike Williams) told us to go out there and play defense. And in the second quarter we pressed and ran all over the place, got on a run and took the momentum.”
At the end of the first quarter East Aurora (9-14, 2-5) led 9-7, but the Wildcats variety of zone defenses shut them down in the second period as the Tomcats were held to three points without a field goal.
“We were getting a little impatient,” said East Aurora coach William Anderson. “Everyone was in a rush and played a little selfish. But Neuqua did a good job on defense and blitzed our weak ballhandlers causing some turnovers. They were just a better team than we were.”
A basket by Kristen Moore, who led the Wildcats with 11 points, tied it 9-9 early in the second quarter. A little later a putback by Allison Hedrick made it 13-12 and the Wildcats never trailed again.
It was still only 21-12 to start the third quarter, but in the first 15 seconds Neuqua (17-5, 5-4) pretty much put the game away when Malia Smith hit Amber Smith underneath with the opening inbounds pass and Amber laid it in. And a few seconds later Doody stole the ball, passed it underneath and got it back in the corner where she hit a 15-footer to make it 25-12.
The Wildcats scored the next seven points to blow the game wide open with Doody’s three-pointer making the score 32-12.
“We concentrated on working on defense and the whole game turned on that,” said Amber Smith, who led the Wildcats with 10 rebounds. “One person shows her toughness and everyone follows. We’re back on track and we’re going to continue.”
“The coach looks to Amber and me as seniors to get everyone going,” said Doody, who grabbed six boards and came up with three steals. “East Aurora is a fast and aggressive team. But we took it home from the start of the third quarter and we’re happy with the way we finished.”
Niki Lazar came through with 10 points off the bench.
“It was a confidence-booster for our kids to know that they still have it,” said Williams. “We’re back on track and we’ve got rhythm and that’s the important thing. Niki Lazar and Kristen Moore were outstanding off the bench and Megan and Amber played like veterans.”
Tyshee Towner was outstanding for the Tomcats with a game-high 17 points, nine rebounds and four steals.
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