Neuqua Valley senior Zoe Navarro didn’t get the news until shortly before tipoff.
Evansville-bound senior guard Kylee Norkus was ill and not on the premises. So Navarro, normally a pass-first point guard, knew she was going to have to help senior guard Caitlin Washington take up some of the scoring slack
“Honestly, I didn’t know Kylee was not coming until the game,” Navarro said. “But once I heard that news, I was like, yeah, she obviously is a really good hustle player. She’s able to get to the rim and get to the line a lot.
“So I know that we have to fill that void as a team, and I just did my best to contribute, getting off to a fast start on offense.”
Navarro’s best was good enough. She finished with 16 points, five rebounds, four assists and two steals as the host Wildcats rallied past Aurora Central Catholic for a 61-57 nonconference win in Naperville on Monday night.
Washington had a team-high 22 points and seven rebounds, and sophomore Nalia Clifford added 14 points, three rebounds and three steals for Neuqua Valley (8-6), which trailed 41-36 at halftime. Junior forward Riley Cwinski poured in 18 of her game-high 27 points in the first half for the Chargers (11-3).
“Zoe has been around this thing for a long time, so she knows that if there’s a missing piece, then somebody’s got to step into the shoes, and she did that,” Neuqua Valley coach Mike Williams said.
“She did a lot more attacking things that she hasn’t done in the past, hit some shots, made some passes, and defensively we made some adjustments, and she did a great job of flying around. I thought that was awesome.”
Navarro was aggressive from the get-go, sinking her first three shots on two driving layups and a 3-pointer to give the Wildcats a 9-1 lead.
“I try to get myself going early in the game to get myself in a groove,” she said. “That’s really important because I don’t want to get cold. If I know my shot is feeling good after warmups, I just want to get as many shots up as a I can.”
The hot start proved vital for the Wildcats because the Chargers turned the game into a track meet, with both teams scoring early and often in transition.
Aurora Central Catholic’s halftime lead might have been greater, but Navarro blocked junior guard/forward Brooklyn Murphy’s 3-point try at the buzzer. The Wildcats then held the Chargers without a basket for a 10:45 span to seize control.
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Navarro uncharacteristically missed seven free throws but made four of her last five.
“She’s a four-year senior,” Williams said. “That makes a difference. I know she’s mad she missed all those free throws, but Zoe is money on the free throws. Those ones (she made) were the big ones.”
There was a time when Navarro might not have made those plays.
“I’ve grown immensely,” she said. “I feel like being on varsity for all four years helped me grow.
“Being in those high-intense situations as a freshman, I was able to handle the ball with girls two to three times bigger than me. So I was grateful that I was able to get that experience under my belt, and I feel like that’s helping me now in my senior year.”
Navarro is intent on helping people on and off the court. She has offers from Division III schools Concordia, Grinnell and Monmouth but hasn’t decided whether she will play in college.
“I want to go into nursing, so I feel like that’s a pretty grueling major,” she said. “I feel that would be kind of difficult to balance with a sport and academics. But I know a lot of people do it, so I know it’s possible.”
Navarro said she has always been interested in the medical field but doesn’t think she’s cut out for medical school, so nursing appealed to her.
“You’re never going to be struggling to find work, so that plays a role into it,” she said. “I actually want to be a CRNA (certified registered nurse anesthetist). I’ve always been interested in anesthesiology, partly because of Gray’s Anatomy. It exposed me to what that life would be like.”
Williams isn’t surprised by Navarro’s nursing aspirations.
“Kylee could use her now,” Williams quipped.
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for the Naperville Sun.