Boys Basketball: Neuqua Valley goes outside to earn win

Updated: December 10, 2011 11:42PM

Neuqua Valley and Bartlett came in to Saturday’s Upstate Eight Valley contest each looking for its first conference win.

Senior guard Tyler Sutton scored 18 points as the Wildcats held on for a 64-59 victory against the host Hawks in Bartlett.

Neuqua Valley (4-4, 1-2) uncharacteristically shot well from behind the arc, going 7-for-10 from three-point range.

“We usually aren’t very good at shooting from long distance,” Sutton said. “We do shooting drills in practice all the time, and tonight they finally paid off.”

The conference win helped the Wildcats rebound from a 66-61 loss earlier in the week to Waubonsie Valley.

“It was great to get a huge win against a great Bartlett team,” Wildcats coach Todd Sutton said. “I wasn’t happy with some of our defense tonight, but you have to give Bartlett credit for the adjustments they made.

‘‘Glad to get out of here with a win.”

Jabari Sandifer added 15 points for Neuqua Valley.

The Hawks (4-3, 0-2) were led by Matt Chaltin, who scored 19 points.

“We struggled early on in the game on both sides of the ball,” Chaltin said. “We picked things up in the second half but couldn’t stop them when we needed to.”

Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith was happy with his team’s effort.

“We are getting better each game,” Wolfsmith said. “I was happy with how our seniors stepped up and that we were in the game until the very end.

‘‘Basketball really is a simple game. If you can win the turnover margin, the rebounding margin, and make more free throws you are going to win the game. So far we haven’t done that.”

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