Shots keep dropping for Metea
Aurora Christian came out in a zone defense.
Then Metea Valley got in “the zone.”
The Mustangs jumped ahead to a 28-12 lead after one quarter, drained 16 3-pointers in the contest and beat the Eagles 95-74 in a Monday night game at the 83rd annual Chuck Dayton Holiday Tournament at DeKalb.
“Good start, and I think we needed a confidence builder early and we hit our shots right away and that kind of helped,” Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza said. “I was happy with our defensive effort early, but then we kind of let our guard down and they scored way too many points after that first quarter.”
Metea Valley (6-5) isn't used to going up against a zone defense but licked its chops when it realized the Eagles were implementing one.
“We were pretty happy when we saw they were playing zone because we have a lot of guys that can light it up beyond the arc,” Metea Valley point guard Ryan Solomon said. “We passed it around tonight, and when someone got open they hit the shot.”
Solomon was one of three Mustangs to sink a single 3-pointer, while Milan Bojanic, Lashawn Cargo and Tresean Mackey each drained three apiece. Kenny Obendorf led the Mustangs with four 3-pointers.
“It's funny. Going into it, I saw some previous games of Aurora Christian so I knew we might face a zone and I sort of stressed before the game that we have to get the ball inside and not rely on the 3,” Vozza said. “Even at halftime we talked again that those shots aren't going to keep falling. It was one of those nights where they kept falling.”
Cargo finished with 19 points, Obendorf contributed 16 points, Solomon had 14 points and Bojanic chipped in with 13 points for the Mustangs. Aurora Christian (5-6) never recovered from the early deficit in the first quarter. The Eagles pulled to within 44-35 with 1:43 left in the second quarter but never got closer.
“We're just really struggling on defense right now and there's no rhyme or reason but we're just not competing on the defensive end,” Aurora Christian coach Steve Hansen said. “I was fairly pleased with offense in the first half. I thought we got up and down the floor with them and got some easy baskets but just had no answer on defense, none, and that's been three games in a row.”
Ryan Suttle led the Eagles with 17 points. Senior Trenton Pouncy had 12 points, and Dean Danos overcame a first-quarter collision with the Gatorade cooler to score 14 points.