Metea Valley edges Waubonsie Valley
If the key ingredients of a rivalry are familiarity, proximity, roaring crowds, maybe a dash of dislike and, most important, blood-and-guts games between two evenly matched opponents, then Metea Valley and Waubonsie Valley found the rivalry recipe on Friday night.
In the just the second meeting between the schools, Metea’s first-year varsity program showed that it is in no mood to be the whipping boy of its Eola Road neighbor by posting a 66-63 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division victory on Waubonsie’s home court. The win also guaranteed that the Mustangs (14-12, 4-7) would complete their first regular season with a winning record.
“From the start, I thought we were on top of our game,” said Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza. “We’ve been going through a stretch where we have been off to slow starts on the road, but tonight our focus and intensity were right there from the beginning. Maybe it takes a rivalry game to bring it out of us.”
Led by Ryan Solomon’s 12 points and 10 from Kenny Obendorf, the Mustangs led for most of the first half, with the biggest advantage coming at 18-12 late in the first quarter on a pair of Obendorf free throws. While Vozza was pleased with his squad’s start, Waubonsie Valley coach Steve Weemer had the opposite view of his team’s early-game effort.
“First of all, hats off to Bob Vozza and Metea Valley,” he said. “They came in here and were ready to play. They played well tonight as a team, I know all of the families over there and I’m happy for them. We just didn’t have enough effort at the beginning of the game and that’s my fault. We also didn’t defend very well; when you give up 66 points, you usually don’t win the game.”
The Warriors (15-10, 5-6) did fight back to take their first lead of the game at 24-22 on Jakobi Johnson’s basket, and after the teams traded points on 6 straight possessions, the Mustangs opened the lead back to 36-30 at halftime courtesy of Vin Patel’s late 3-pointer.
The Metea advantage grew to nine, 42-33, on Sean Davis’s twisting layup midway through the third quarter, but 10 combined points off the bench from Brandon Malby and Xavier Biles in the quarter pulled the Warriors within 46-43 after three stops. Austin Keys appeared to turn the momentum permanently in Waubonsie’s direction with a midcourt steal and breakaway dunk early in the fourth quarter that put the Warriors ahead 49-48, forcing Vozza to burn a timeout.
But after that, it was the Mustangs that looked like the established program as they forced turnovers on Waubonsie’s next three possessions and turned them into 3-pointers from Lashawn Cargo and Obendorf, and 3 free throws from Davis, on the way to a 59-51 lead that the Warriors could not trim to less than the final 3-point margin.
“They took the lead, but we executed down the stretch and made our free throws,” said Solomon, who stuffed the stat sheet to the tune of 17 points, 7 assists, 6 rebounds and 2 steals. “We’ve been shooting for (a winning record) from the start of the season. The first year of the program, a winning season, you can’t ask for much more.”