basketball.dailyherald.com/story/?id=265228This time it's all NeuquaBy Dave Oberhelman | Daily Herald 1/17/2009
This was not an Indian Prairie classic.
Barring Waubonsie Valley from running effective offense, host Neuqua Valley led by as many as 31 points before winning the Upstate Eight Conference contest 68-51 in south Naperville.
The sellout crowd that saw Neuqua Valley (15-1, 4-1) pull within 12-8 in the District 204 series saw nothing like last year's 2-point barnburner won by Waubonsie (8-7, 2-2).
"Last year, at the buzzer. This year I thought it'd be overtime," said Neuqua coach Todd Sutton. "Maybe we got fortunate tonight. They're usually very, very close. I'm sure the next one will be very, very close."
Wildcats guards Nolan Brown, Rahjan Muhammad and Ryan Wagner were very, very close to their counterparts until Sutton cleared his bench to start the fourth quarter.
"Their big men were good and their guards are just trying to get it to the big men, so we tried to pressure their guards as much as possible," Brown said of the tight man-to-man.
Two first-quarter fouls limited Neuqua forward Dwayne Evans' early impact, but center Kareem Amedu, forward Derek Raridon and Muhammad, with two 3s and 8 of his 10 points, picked up the slack.
The 6-foot-5 Amedu converted a three-point play to put Neuqua up 12-7 after a quarter, another midway through the second quarter and scored on Brown's alley-oop pass to force Waubonsie Valley coach Steve Weemer into a timeout down 27-13 with 2:10 before the half.
"It's always a heartbreaker for me when anyone gets an 'and-one' and makes the free throw also. It just helped the offense out that much better," said Amedu, whose 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting from the floor led Neuqua.
Holding Waubonsie to 5-of-21 first-half shooting while claiming a 34-15 halftime lead, Neuqua piled on.
Evans had 12 of his 14 points and 6 of his 8 rebounds in the third quarter. When Wagner drove the baseline unmolested at 1:15 of the third, the Wildcats were up 54-23.
Having made 16 of 27 field-goal tries over the second and third quarters, Neuqua led 63-33 with 4:46 left to play.
"We didn't play up to our full potential," said Jelani Johnson, the sole Warrior in double figures with 15 points. "We just took ourselves out of it."
Weemer, who took his worst loss in four years coaching the Warriors, seconded that.
"They were Muhammad Ali tonight and we were Billy Joe Bob Buster," he said, "and they just drilled us."
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