Defense helps Williams, Metea Valley get win in opener

Cedric Williams preached defense in his first game as Metea Valley's girls basketball coach.

The Mustangs applied a 3-2 zone that frustrated Plainfield East for much of the night, holding the Bengals to just 4 field goals in the second half.

Metea Valley built on an 11-point halftime lead and came away with a 65-29 victory in the season opener Tuesday night.

"We're very excited for our new coach and he's very excited for us," Metea Valley senior Lisa Logan said. "Before the game he just told us to go out and play as a team, and that's exactly what we did."

The Mustangs (1-0) jumped out to an 8-0 lead to start the game, but after a steal and layup by Logan, Plainfield East held its opponent without a field goal for over five minutes and took a 10-8 lead on a baseline jumper by Kennedy Collins.

A driving layup by Logan with 30 seconds left ended the Mustangs' field-goal drought and tied the game at 12-12.

Taseandra Parker split a pair of free throws to give her team a 13-12 lead 20 seconds into the second quarter, and from there, the Bengals trailed the rest of the way.

Parker scored seven of her team's first nine points in the second quarter and also assisted senior Cheyenne Krehl on a baseline jumper and fastbreak layup.

All of Parker's field goals came on drives to the basket or inside the paint.

"I told Taseandra from Day 1 she was going to have to step up and she did that," Williams said. "She's aggressive and uses her quickness to the basket. She needs to continue to do that and continue to get her confidence going."

Sophomore Brianna Hall, making her varsity debut, helped put some distance between Metea Valley and Plainfield East. The Mustangs ended the game with a 14-0 run as Hall scored 10 of those points during that run.

Hall scored 14 of her 18 points in the second half as the Bengals were outscored 32-9.

"I think she pressed a little bit at the beginning, so I told her that she needed to calm down and focus on what she's doing," Williams said of Hall. "I said let's start on the defensive side of the ball first and then everything else will fall into place. It's a defense-first approach with this team."