When Neuqua Valley sophomore forward Cole Kelly is about to do something special, teammate Carter Coviello can usually tell.
One of those times came Friday night.
“There’s always a vibe in the locker room between me, Mason (Martin) and Cole where we know exactly what we have to do and we know how to get it done,” Coviello said. “So in the warmups, we’re usually messing around, smiling.
“But today it was silence. Everyone had serious faces. Cole knows what needs to be done, and he knows he needs to be the one to do it.”
The 6-foot-7 Kelly, who already has offers from Illinois
More Top Picks Best Recliners For Heart Patients After Open Heart Surgery
and other Division I programs, did it in dominant fashion. He made 15 of 22 shots to score a game-high 36 points as the second-seeded Wildcats won the Class 4A Neuqua Valley Regional title with an 80-51 rout of seventh-seeded Oswego East in Naperville.Kelly also had six rebounds and three assists for Neuqua Valley (32-1), which avenged its only loss to break the program record for victories in a season and advanced to play third-seeded host Bolingbrook (24-7) in a sectional semifinal at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
Kelly scored 30 points and Mason, a junior guard who has committed to Illinois, had 22 in the first game against the Wolves (19-12), who won 74-65 on Nov. 28. Kelly had not forgotten that loss.
“Obviously, this was a revenge game for me,” he said. “They hold our only loss of the year, and I would do anything I could to win this game, and I did.”
But not in the way people have come to expect.
“They were guarding the 3-point line, so I was getting to the rack and scoring in ways that I know I can,” Kelly said. “I’ve had a lot of games where I’ve filled it from beyond the arc, but to score 36 on mostly twos is something that I don’t normally do.”
Yet driving is perhaps Kelly’s best weapon. He hasn’t always been able to show that off because Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton put a restrictor plate on Kelly’s high-powered engine during the regular season.
“Throughout the year, we’ve tried to develop multiple options so it’s not the Cole show and the Mason show,” Sutton said. “So he’s had to defer to Danny (Mikuta) and Luke (Balgro) and Arshil (Khimani) and Carter and … his points are shrinking to make us a better team.
“Tonight, he said, ‘Screw it, I’m taking over.’”
Indeed, Kelly was full throttle from the get-go, and his teammates were fine with that. Coviello, a junior guard, recorded the first of his five assists on a 3-pointer by Kelly that started a shocking 15-0 run in the first quarter. By halftime, Kelly had 16 points and Martin had 14 of his 22 points.
“I think playing for your home crowd and doing something for them, all 13 of us were hungry to get this one back,” Kelly said.
Oswego East didn’t make it easy. After being held scoreless for the first 12 minutes, DePaul-bound senior guard Mason Lockett scored 13 of his team-high 19 points in the final 3:41 of the second quarter, which ended with his 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Lockett then scored the first basket of the third quarter to cut the lead to 37-31. But he scored just three points after that as the Wildcats regrouped.
Kelly scored the next five points and had 12 in the quarter to extend the lead to 55-40. He continued powering to the basket in the fourth quarter.
“Cole knows he can score from beyond the arc, obviously, but I tell him all the time that no one can stop him,” Coviello said. “If he’s determined to get to the rim, no one is going to be able to stop him. He’s too strong, and his finishing is top-tier, obviously.
“He has great touch around the rim, so he knows he can get it whenever he wants. He only has more in him.”
Sutton has seen it.
“You wouldn’t believe what I see in practice,” Sutton said. “My goodness, you wouldn’t believe it.”
Outsiders might not believe the scene after the game. After helping cut down the nets, Kelly was surrounded by fellow students posing for selfies with him. He then signed over a dozen autographs for younger children, inking his name on sweatshirts and a shoe.
“It’s surreal,” Kelly said. “I cherish it every single time knowing that I’m helping the community, inspiring the younger generation, for sure.
“We’ve just got to keep this thing rolling because we’ve got something to prove.”
More Top Picks Best Transition Glasses For Light Sensitivity
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.