Metea Valley emerges alone atop UEC Valley

Metea Valley's boys basketball team has some major issues to contend with. Like the burden of an unbeaten record, and every opponent looking to take the Mustangs down.

Lake Park, had its first shot Saturday, tied atop the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division with the Mustangs going in. Metea emerged from a first-half defensive grinder to take the outright lead with a 61-45 win in Aurora.

"It's definitely very never-wracking," said Metea senior guard Ryan Solomon, who ran the break for a team-high 13 points. "Everyone's like, 'Oh, they're undefeated.' It's hard to not think about it, but I think we fought through those (nerves) and played well the rest of the game."

Metea (14-0, 5-0) forced the Lancers into an astounding 31 turnovers, but initially Lake Park (10-4, 4-1) was just as pesky. Metea led only 16-14 at halftime before outscoring the Lancers 45-31 in the second half.

"They took it to us a little bit and they forced us to run our offense a little spread, a little wider," said Metea coach Bob Vozza. "We weren't screening, so on every catch they were all over us. Give credit to them with the way we started. But I was very pleased defensively the whole game."

Headed defensively by TréSean Mackey and Sean Davis, each Metea starter had at least 1 steal. But 31 turnovers Lake Park forward Dominique Spencer was flummoxed.

"You shouldn't have 31 turnovers for whoever you play," said the Lancers senior, who held Metea's top scorer, Kenny Obendorf, to 9 points. "That's just unacceptable. I really don't know what to say about that."

Solomon's transition basket began a 13-4 Mustangs run coming out of halftime. Lake Park's Dave Prentis, who scored a team-high 15 points, hit the first of his three 3-pointers to move within 29-24 before Metea ended the quarter on a 7-0 run for a 36-24 lead entering the fourth quarter.

"We had good defense the whole game," said Metea forward Milan Bojanic, "and we just kept on pushing in transition and did a better job scoring (as) defense turned into offense."

Metea Valley also made 21 of 31 free throws, including 18 of 23 in the second half. The closest Lake Park came in the fourth quarter was 9 points, the last time on Sean Moore's basket to trim Metea's lead to 47-38 with 3:31 to play. The Mustangs then rattled off 7 straight points.

Moore and Spencer each scored 6 points for Lake Park. Bojanic scored 12 and Davis 11 for Metea.

"Against the team we're tied with," Solomon said, "it's definitely a big game."