Without little doubt, Connor Raridon has been the man to spearhead the success Neuqua Valley has enjoyed this season.
On Friday night in Aurora, with East Aurora keying in on Neuqua Valley’s leading scorer, his teammates helped pick up the slack.
Jacob Eminger’s double-double paced a Neuqua Valley offensive attack that saw three players score in double figures on its way to posting a 62-53 Upstate Eight Valley victory.
Five Neuqua Valley players (24-4, 12-2) scored at least nine points, led by Eminger and Joe Sieger scoring 12 points apiece while Jacob Cushing’s 10 and nine each from Demond George and Zac Lendino rounded out the quintet.
The ability to win a type of game they’ll likely see Tuesday night in opening the postseason as the No. 1 seed in the Class 4A Bolingbrook Sectional with the North Cenbtral College-bound Raridon only scoring five points speaks volumes to the balance the Wildcats have enjoyed all year.
“Yeah, we definitely have a lot of balance on the team. I think that is what is going to help us in the playoffs,” said Eminger, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds. “We got a ton of guys on the team who can score and it’s big for us. It’s been big for us all year. (It’s) won us a lot of games.”
With Lawrence Stewart aiming to keep East Aurora in the game, courtesy of his game-high 27 points and his four three-pointers, the Tomcats had the Wildcat lead down to 38-32 with 1:30 left in the third quarter as Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton took time to refocus his group.
A 13-2 run ensued, paced by Cushing, George and Sieger all hitting on three-pointers as the Wildcats turned their 38-32 lead into a 51-34 lead early in the fourth after Sieger’s third triple of the game.
“(Sutton) just told us to calm down because we were getting a little bit too high on the emotions and we were turning over the ball,” Sieger said. “We were taking bad shots. So we tried to calm down and run our offense and make our open shots.
All told, Neuqua Valley hit seven three-pointers.
Offensively, jumping out to a 9-0 lead to start the game and using a 8-0 run early in the third to counter the Tomcats scoring the first two baskets of the second half and eventually the 13-2 run to end the third and start the fourth displayed Neuqua Valley’s ability to spurt.
But the fact seven players came down with rebounds Friday night made Sutton very happy.
“I thought our two posts (Eminger and Lendino) early in the game, I really liked their board work. Jacob and Zac were really good inside, especially in the first half,” Sutton said. … “I want to start (the game) by ripping some rebounds down and the big guys—they got after some boards. The first half was really good for us.”
