Transplanted from Davenport, Iowa last summer prior to the start of the school year, Dei’Ron Delarosa came into Metea Valley’s basketball program as an unknown commodity.
As his junior year at Metea Valley begins to wind down, Delarosa has gotten more and more comfortable within the rotation.
Playing with the same brand of basketball as he did back in Iowa hasn’t hurt either.
Consider his effort on Tuesday against Naperville Central as proof.
Delarosa went off for 20 of his game-high 23 points in the second half as Metea Valley ran away late from Naperville Central to post its sixth straight victory, courtesy of a 61-43 triumph in Aurora.
“I’m used to the (Wilson) Evolution ball. So that’s what y’all have up here,” Delarosa said. “So I’m kind of used to it. … It was a big step of like flowing with (the rest of the team) because I got to (prove myself). I’m new and I didn’t know what else was going on with the program. Everything’s a lot different from Davenport to Illinois.”
Playing off the potent presence Mark Konkle provides inside for the Mustangs (14-12), Delarosa hit five three-pointers, including three during the midst of a 11-point third quarter for him, to help the Mustangs turn a late two-point lead in the third into a lead as large as 20 late in the game.
With junior Harrison Hallstrom, who led Naperville Central (14-12) with a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds, doing an admirable job on Konkle, holding him to just two first-half points, Delarosa pounced on his opportunity to make the Redhawks pay.
“I was rusty in the first half, but third and fourth quarter, I started getting into it and starting warming up. Team started flowing. We started going on (our) transition offense and they just kept giving me the ball and then I just started hitting shots,” Delarosa said.
Konkle ended up joining Delarosa in double figures with 11 points for the Mustangs, who also got eight points apiece from both Nick Dodson and Matt Helwig.
The six straight victories Metea Valley has accumulated dating back to its 58-49 victory over Waubonsie Valley on Jan. 23 has the program on an uptick at the right time.
“Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. You got to feel good about where we’re going and how we’re playing,” Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza said. “For sure.”
For Naperville Central, Tuesday offered up yet another missed opportunity as it continues to have trouble finding much consistency, especially coming on the heels of not being able to cash in on a halftime lead in an eventual loss at Wheaton North last Friday.
Outside of Hallstrom’s team-high 18 points and game-high 11 rebounds, the Redhawks’ next leading scorer was junior Matthew Meier’s 11 points.
Meier was held scoreless until making two free throws with four minutes left in the first half.
Unsure of where his team might be seeded in the Class 4A East Aurora Sectional, a fate he and his team will find out on Thursday, Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer knows his team needs to be better at closing out games.
“(Metea Valley) just got some momentum and just (got rolling) and things just kind of got unraveled. They got us to do things we didn’t want to do on both ends of the floor,” Kramer said. “I don’t know how many points (Metea Valley) scored, but I think that’s the most points we’ve given up all year. … If it’s not, it’s close. I think there’s only one other team (Wheaton Warrenville South on Jan. 23) that’s scored in the 60s on us all year.
“So we just got out of our game. You got to credit them. They took us out of the game. We fell down by eight or nine. All of a sudden, we had to extend our defense. They hit some big threes, got some transition baskets and all of a sudden, we find ourselves in trouble.”
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