Metea Valley plays like it practiced
The Metea Valley boys basketball team pulled off quite an architectural feat on Friday night: The Mustangs transported their practice gym to Neuqua Valley.
Building on what coach Matt Walpole called "a great practice week," the Mustangs sprinted to a 20-0 lead just more than six minutes into the game and were never really threatened in posting a 58-44 victory in the DuPage Valley Conference opener for both squads.
"Sprinted" was the optimal word for those scintillating six minutes. Metea's press notched 6 steals and forced 9 turnovers in that span, most of which turned into fastbreak buckets or deadeye 3-point shots. Leading the charge was Ashton Creal, who had 3 thefts and 3 assists during the game-opening spurt.
"We had been preparing for this in practice, doing a lot of conditioning," Creal said. "You may not like it then, but it really helps in games. We were playing really hard and fast and had a lot of turnovers and layups; we didn't even really need to run our offense."
All five Metea (2-3, 1-0) starters scored in the opening quarter, which ended with a 22-3 Mustangs lead, with Jeremy Hunter leading the way with 9 points, while Payton Thorne had 5 and Creal 4. Hunter and Thorne both hit 3-point shots.
On the other bench Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton had to burn two timeouts in the first four minutes and still the Wildcats (2-3, 0-1) couldn't slow the Metea roll, with Connor Gentry's 3-pointer their only hoop in the quarter.
"It started with defense. We didn't guard anybody, especially in transition; it was just a layup and 3-point line for them," Sutton said. "We also needed to run our offense instead of playing YMCA basketball, which is what we did in the first half; it was just total chaos."
The Wildcats made a little headway in the second quarter when Blaise Meredith and Nathan Scott combined for 7 points to help trim the deficit to 29-15 at halftime. But Ethan Helwig hit a pair of 3-pointers early in the third quarter to help the Mustangs re-establish a 20-point lead at 41-21.
There may have been a few nervous moments for the Mustangs in the final quarter. A pair of baskets from Neuqua's Scott twice cut the lead to 10 points, the second time at 51-41 with two minutes to play, but the Wildcats could get no closer. Ethan Wrigley, Hunter and Thorne combined to hit 7 free throws in the final minute.
"We started with defensive pressure on them from the get-go and that pressure turned into offensive chances for us," Walpole said. "We were able to knock down some shots and get going and that ended up winning it for us. We also stressed that it shouldn't be a surprise when you practice well and come out and play that way."