Metea Valley follows Solomon into final
Ryan Solomon's shot was about the only thing falling for Metea Valley in the first half of Wednesday's Class 4A East Aurora sectional semifinal, so the senior guard figured he'd better keep shooting.
Eventually, his teammates joined in.
Solomon scored a game-high 20 points, senior Kenny Obendorf caught fire in the second half to add 19, and the No. 3-seeded Metea Valley boys basketball team rode a 15-0 second-half run to a 60-51 win over No. 2 Downers Grove South in Aurora on Wednesday. Solomon hit 6 of his first 8 shots, keeping Metea Valley afloat until the rest of his Metea Valey teammates found their touch after the intermission.
"I got a couple of open looks and they went," Solomon said. "I was hitting in the first half, so I thought I'd take a few more shots than I usually do.
"My teammates definitely picked it up in the second half."
The result was a dominant stretch that started when Solomon hit a layup to give Metea Valley a 35-33 lead with two minutes to play in the third quarter.
After a Downers Grove South free throw - its last points until the 5:15 mark of the fourth quarter - senior Raysean Parker splashed a 3-pointer. Junior Sean Davis followed with a heavily contested layup, giving Metea Valley a 40-34 advantage at the start of the final period.
Obendorf opened the fourth with a 3-pointer, then ripped off another to push the lead to 46-34. By the time Metea Valley was done, its one-point advantage had become 15 in less than five minutes of game time.
Obendorf "started getting things going there the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth," Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza said. "Obviously, we need him to hit big shots, and he did."
Metea Valley (25-4) shot 58.3 percent from the field in the second half. It advances to play No. 4 West Aurora in the sectional final at 7:30 p.m. Friday.
Senior Jerron Wilbut led Downers Grove South (23-6) with 12 points, but he was held below his 18.7 points a game average and scored just 2 points in the first half. Senior Greg Garro added 10 points for Downers Grove, which shot just 34.5 percent for the game - 9 of 30 in the second half.
"They outplayed us in the second half. That's the bottom line," Downers Grove South coach Jay Baum said. "They did the things that they wanted to do in their game plan, and we got away from some of the things that we wanted to do."
The start of Wednesday's game was delayed significantly as officials had to re-sweep the floor after Metea Valley's student section threw powder in the air at the end of the National Anthem. Solomon said players were "slipping all over" before the opening tip, and both teams opened the game ice cold from the field.
Downers Grove South took a 25-21 advantage into halftime, but Solomon opened the third quarter with two quick jumpers - part of his 8-of-11 shooting night - to cut the lead to 27-26. Metea Valley took the lead when a 3-pointer by Bojanic bounced high off the front of the rim and in.
Just like that, the lid was off the hoop.
At halftime Vozza "was like, 'Did we play a good half?' And everyone said no, because we didn't," Solomon said. "The second half started and (Obendorf) hit a 3, (Bojanic) hit a 3, and after they hit their shots I knew it was going to be a good game."