Bartlett turns one over to Metea Valley
The Bartlett boys basketball team had already put out the fuse once, but the Hawks couldn't prevent the Metea Valley powder keg from blowing sky high in the fourth quarter of the Mustangs' 68-58 road victory Friday.
Metea Valley threatened to break the game open late in the third quarter, but a 3-pointer by junior John Moss trimmed Metea Valley's lead to 46-39 heading to the final period.
Then the Mustangs turned up the defensive pressure and ran away with it. Reserve Lashawn Cargo opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer, and Metea Valley defenders followed with 3 straight steals to ignite their vaunted, fast-break offense.
Two buckets by senior Ryan Solomon and another by sophomore Raysean Parker fed a 9-0 run that ballooned the lead to 55-39 with 5:49 left, but the Mustangs weren't through. They kept the pressure on with tough man-to-man defense and half-court traps until they led by as many as 21 points with 2:05 left in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division contest.
The Mustangs scored 24 of their 68 points on fast breaks resulting directly from live-ball turnovers.
"We really picked up our defense in the second half and that's what really started it," said 6-foot-2 senior Kenny Obendorf, who led the way with 22 points. "We got some easy baskets going the other way."
Metea Valley (7-0, 2-0) induced 9 fourth-quarter turnovers from Bartlett (4-2, 0-1), which committed 13 turnovers in the three previous quarters combined.
"We weren't happy defensively in the first half with our efforts," said Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza, whose team led 31-26 at halftime. "The things we talked about all week we weren't doing very well. We talked about our keys at halftime, doing what we're supposed to do, pressure the ball. When we start doing well on that end, we're pretty good on the floor and we get some easy ones."
Vozza began substituting for his starters with 2:05 left in the game, leading 66-45.
"One of the things we really wanted to do was stop their transition," Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "I thought we did that in the first half and a little bit in the third quarter when they got a little bit of a run going. We were able to stem the tied and get back into it. We were in the game with our still-inexperienced team.
"Then, in the fourth quarter, we tightened up and they got a little more intense on defense. We gave up turnovers."
Bartlett closed the game on a 13-2 run against Metea Valley reserves to make the score respectable, but little else came easy to the Hawks, who lost the turnover battle 22-14. Senior guard Marcus Aluquin scored 21 points, but senior guard Matt Chaltin was held to 5 points on only 4 shot attempts thanks to intense coverage by Solomon. Senior forward Lorenzo Mitchell, who battled foul trouble most of the game, was held to 4 points and 2 rebounds.
Solomon finished with 9 points and Cargo came off the bench to add 9 points and 3 steals for Metea Valley, which puts its undefeated record on the line in a UEC Valley home game against South Elgin tonight at 6 p.m.
"We're undefeated, but none of us are satisfied because we know we can play better," Cargo said.
"There are a lot of minutes we took off that we shouldn't have. Maybe some games shouldn't have been how it was, especially this game. We have to keep getting better every day."