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Girls Basketball: Neuqua Valley starts fast, rolls to win
Mary Beth Nolan~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: December 13, 2011 9:46PM
Coming into the Oswego Holiday Classic, Neuqua Valley girls basketball coach Mike Williams felt good about his team’s chances to win the title.
After Tuesday’s 46-33 win over Hampshire, a game in which the Wildcats jumped out to a 23-4 lead, Neuqua is in a great position to do just that.
All eight teams have now played two games, and only Neuqua and the hosts from Oswego are 2-0 in tournament play. The Wildcats face Minooka Thursday with a trip to the tournament finals on Saturday on the line.
“We have a real good chance of winning,” Williams said. “You never know what could happen, but we feel confident. We felt confident coming in.”
Neuqua (9-1) came at Hampshire (4-7) in waves in the first half. While the Whip-Purs suited up only seven players Tuesday, Williams deployed 13 players in the first half, keeping fresh bodies on the floor as Neuqua raced out to a 23-4 lead early in the second quarter. Neuqua forced Hampshire into 11 first-half turnovers and took a 31-13 lead into the half.
“The pressure defense helped us a lot,” Williams said. “In the first half, we were converting. Second half, we came out a little sluggish and missed a lot of easy looks. When you feel like you have a comfortable lead, sometimes you’re not as sharp as you need to be. I think that’s what happened to us.”
The other thing that happened was that the scrappy Whip-Purs did not quit in the second half. They outscored Neuqua 14-7 in the third quarter and when Jennifer Dumoulin split a pair of free throws with 3:25 left in the fourth, Hampshire had actually cut the lead to single digits, 42-33, though Hampshire never scored again. Dumoulin shared team-high honors with Grace Jakubowski, scoring 10 points apiece.
“They showed a lot of character,” Hampshire coach Ed Haugens said. “They didn’t give up and they kept fighting. I think we took a step forward tonight in terms of becoming smarter players. We don’t see teams this athletic. They’re very well-coached and athletic. Put that together, this is a good team for us to play. The girls did a nice job of keeping their composure down the stretch.”
Amarah Coleman and Megan Doody each scored 11 to pace a balanced Neuqua Valley attack.
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