Metea Valley’s coaching staff knew an adjustment needed to be made and fast.
With Roland Griffin quickly settling into a little groove in the third quarter to help give West Aurora a seven-point lead, the Mustangs switched to a 3-2 zone.
“The possession before, (Griffin) might have scored his last (basket of the third), Coach (Tim) Pease was like, ‘We got to change something.’” Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza said. “So I called the timeout. We’ve been working on that zone a little bit, that four-zone we run. Try to compact it a little bit, have Bryson (Oliver) front (Griffin) when he gets down. They hit a couple (baskets), but then the shots stopped falling for them and we just kept going to it.”
What followed was a 34-11 run to finish off the game as Metea Valley opened up the game late to pull away for a 75-59 Upstate Eight Valley victory over West Aurora on Thursday night in Aurora.
In the midst of getting its third straight victory, Metea Valley (11-12, 6-5) had five guys finish in double figures, paced by the 18 points it got from senior big man Mark Konkle to go along with getting 17 from Ron Edwards and 16 from Dei’Ron Delarosa.
Konkle had 14 of his 18 points for the Mustangs in the first half, which saw the lead exchange hands 14 times as the Mustangs were able to keep pace with Griffin and the Blackhawks to go into halftime down just three.
“Again, guards have me really, really good passes and we had a couple good finishes (inside). But you know, (we got) balanced scoring all night, I thought,” Konkle said. “Ron kept us in it a little bit in the first quarter with his threes and we sustained it through the game. But I thought almost everyone (contributed offensively), so that’s a great balanced game.”
But he received plenty of help in the second half.
Delarosa had 12 points after halftime, including two three-pointers, while Edwards had eight of his 17 in the fourth as the Mustangs went on an 11-0 fourth-quarter run to break a 54-54 tie. Oliver added six of his 11 points in the fourth, as well.
All told, the Mustangs outscored West Aurora, 27-9, in the fourth.
“(West Aurora) was kind of sluggish (Thursday), so we took advantage of that and our defense was pretty incredible. Coaches told us to play D,” Edwards said. “(Defense) helps us win games. So that helped us a lot. Dei’Ron (Delarosa) played good. Nick (Dodson) and Bryson (Oliver) played good.”
The Illinois State-bound Griffin led the Blackhawks with a game-high 24 points, but the Mustangs held him to just one basket in the fourth while the game’s outcome was still in doubt.
“It seemed like in the first half when (the Blackhawks) needed a key bucket, (Griffin) was getting it for them. … He’s just a ton and we had to do more than try to guard him man-to-man,” Vozza said. “Couldn’t do it, so we had to change it up a bit. Just trying to get out on the shooters, especially trying to protect (Griffin) inside. (Griffin) is such a great athlete and a great scorer in there, so we had to try and guard him with multiple people.”
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