Metea Valley overcomes slow start, St. Charles North

Metea Valley couldn't have gotten off to a worse start in its second-round tilt with St. Charles North Wednesday at the Ron Johnson Thanksgiving Tournament at St. Charles East.

The North Stars drilled four straight 3-pointers to begin the first quarter, while the Mustangs missed 7 of their first 8 shots and found themselves trailing 12-2 six minutes into the game.

Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza knew the only way the Mustangs could dig out of that early hole.

"It had to start with defense," Vozza said.

Vozza's squad certainly delivered. Metea Valley slowed down North's lethal offense, took the lead for good in the third quarter, then held on down the stretch for a 59-50 victory.

The Mustangs (2-0) are now a win Friday over Plainfield East away from clinching first place in the tournament's Orange Division and reaching Saturday's finals, where they would meet either St. Joseph (2-0) or St. Charles East (2-0).

Metea Valley will need to deal with Plainfield East star and University of Illinois signee Aaron Jordan, arguably the state's best shooter, to earn a spot in the title game.

"He's obviously a great player, and if you leave him open he'll get his points," said senior center Mark Konkle, who led the Mustangs with 12 points and 11 rebounds. "We'll need to play great team defense on him and let that lead into good team offense for us to win."

Metea Valley got plenty of practice facing a sharp-shooting offense Wednesday. North (1-1) sank eight 3-pointers in its victory over Plainfield East on Tuesday and hit 6 of its first 10 treys against the Mustangs.

But Metea Valley limited the North Stars to 1-14 shooting beyond the arc in the second half and 10-34 overall behind a physical man-to-man defense and tough close-outs on North's cadre of shooters.

The defensive performance seemed to spark the Mustangs on the offensive end. Metea Valley nailed 14 of 24 shots after intermission, including 4 for 6 from 3-point range in the third quarter, when the Mustangs turned a 26-20 deficit into a 45-38 lead.

Junior guard Matt Helwig (game-high 15 points) delivered three of those treys, and junior point guard Montrel Oliver (8 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 block) made the 3-pointer that pushed Metea Valley ahead for good 35-32 midway through the third quarter.

"Matt's a conscientious player. Sometimes we have to keep encouraging him to look for his shot," Vozza said. "He really caught fire in the third quarter, and Montrel gave us a lift at both ends of the floor. But it all started with our defense."

St. Charles North hung around the entire fourth quarter and had a couple of chances to draw within a basket but missed a 3-pointer while trailing 54-48 and again while behind 56-50.

The North Stars had a difficult time scoring inside the lane against a strong Metea Valley frontline anchored by the 6-foot-6 Konkle and couldn't find their shooting touch from the perimeter.

The Mustangs' aggressive man-to-man defense also held all-area senior guard Jake Ludwig (8 points) to one point on 0-for-6 shooting in the second half and benefited from St. Charles North's 1-5 free-throw shooting in the final 8:00.

"To be honest, I thought Metea Valley was tougher than us," North Stars coach Tom Poulin said. "They were physical with us off the ball and got after us on the defensive end, and we didn't respond well. We didn't shoot well or execute our system. We dribbled too much and didn't share the ball like we should have. We got away from our system, and we also needed to knock down our free throws at the end of the game. But it's one game at the start of the season. We have a lot of basketball to play."

Senior forward Jack Callaghan paced the North Stars with 14 points and 7 rebounds.