Metea Valley spins a win
To understand the upcoming reference, the Metea Valley and Neuqua Valley basketball players may need to ask their parents to dust off their old phonograph turntables.
Here it is: the difference between the teams in Friday night's Upstate Eight Conference and cross-town showdown at Neuqua — a 67-61 victory for undefeated Metea — was that the Mustangs were operating at 78 rpms, while the Wildcats were at just 45.
“Transition,” said Neuqua coach Todd Sutton when asked what the difference was. “They are very good in transition, they finish and we were just trailing; we had five guys behind them when they scored.”
Revving the highest for the Mustangs (9-0, 4-0) was Kenny Obendorf, who seemed to hit a big shot every time his team needed one on the way to a game- and season-high 28 points, 22 of which came in the second half.
“Obviously, playing Neuqua, a conference team, we both know what each one runs,” said Mustang coach Bob Vozza, “and when Kenny started dominating I started running isolations for him and he hit a lot of big shots.”
For his part Obendorf credited the work he and his teammates did at the other end of the floor as the key to the victory.
“Definitely getting stops on defense, that's what the coaches stress, getting those stops and then attacking on the offensive end,” he said. “Once we were able to grab that momentum we kept the lead and then hit enough free throws at the end.”
Obendorf played a pivotal role in the game's two most crucial stretches. After a first half in which the Wildcats (5-5, 1-3) led only once, 6-4, they opened the third quarter with putback baskets — of which they had 10 on the night — from Darien Miskel and Peter Catchings and a Nate Boudreau layup to turn a 28-27 deficit into a 33-29 lead. That advantage lasted less than a minute, however, as the Mustangs got 3-pointers from Lashawn Cargo and Obendorf, along with Ryan Solomon's driving layup in an 8-0 run that put Metea back on top 37-33.
“Things weren't going well, but Lashawn hit a huge shot, then Kenny hit a big shot,” Vozza said. “I thought about calling a timeout before that, but we've relied on this senior class and they responded in a tough spot.”
The Metea lead accordioned between two and five points for the next seven minutes before the Mustangs hit the Wildcats with a decisive 9-0 run — the first 7 from Obendorf — to open a 58-46 lead with three minutes to play.
Neuqua pulled within 60-56 on a rare 5-point play that resulted when Tyler Sutton hit a 3-pointer while Boudreau was fouled off the ball and hit the subsequent free throws, but the Mustangs closed it out from the free-throw stripe, even though they were just 14 for 27 from the line in the game.