On a night when leaders from the past were inducted into Naperville Central’s Athletic Hall of Fame, the Redhawks’ current senior leaders paved the way to a home victory over Neuqua Valley.
In the fourth quarter Friday, Pedro Villanova scored 10 of his 15 points and Noah Swope added eight of his team-high 17 as Naperville Central chalked up a 63-54 DuPage Valley victory.
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The win was the Redhawks’ first in three games against Neuqua, with one loss coming in the Hoops for Healing Tournament. Naperville Central (7-13, 2-8) has won two of its last three conference games after starting 0-7.
Leading 39-33 after three quarters, the Redhawks received inside scoring from Villanova and clutch shooting from the free-throw line by Swope, who went 6-for-8 down the stretch.
“It might be a little late, but we’re having fun with it,” Swope said of Central’s resurgence. “Last week, free-throw shooting was an issue for us. We just like to improve on our mistakes so we came back and shot the free-throw ball well. We made better decisions (Friday).”
The Redhawks shot 24-for-29 from the line, including 12-for-15 in the fourth quarter.
Neuqua (10-12, 3-7) didn’t quit, however, pulling within 57-54 on a 3-pointer by Blaise Meredith with 25 seconds left. But the Redhawks scored the last six points.
Meredith tallied 12 of his game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter.
“He’s been doing that all year long,” Neuqua coach Todd Sutton said of Meredith. “We’re not giving him much help and he struggles with that.
“He gives his heart and passion into every play. We’ve got to make some more plays. We need a little more help.”
A 11-0 run to end the second quarter put the Wildcats up 22-21 at halftime. Ben Wolf scored six points in the third to help give Naperville Central a six-point lead.
The Redhawks committed nine turnovers in the first half, while Neuqua had six turnovers in the second half.
“Unforced turnovers in the second quarter,” Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said. “Otherwise the other three quarters I thought we played pretty good basketball and defensively we did a nice job.
“Our kids were composed in the second half and did a nice job.”
One result of the Redhawks’ defense was forcing Neuqua to foul and then converting free throws.
Meredith was called for his fourth foul a minute into the fourth quarter before Nathan Scott, who finished with 14 points, committed his fourth foul with about a minute left.
“All three of our guards try to attack and try to get their big guys in foul trouble,” Villanova said. “We know when we go to the line we’re going to knock them down.”
Bob Hurst is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun.