Metea Valley rolls to victory
The Metea Valley boys basketball team might have had to shake off a bit of rust, but once the Mustangs got going against Ridgewood on Friday, they didn't take their foot off the gas pedal.
The Mustangs rolled to a 77-52 victory in their first game of the Jack Tosh Holiday Classic at York with a combination of their aggressive defense and the combined high-low play of center Mark Konkle and guard Ron Edwards.
It's the fifth time this year that Metea has scored more than 60 points in a game and the third time scoring more than 70 points, including its last result, an 83-51 victory against South Elgin on Dec. 19.
"I think it all starts with our defense. Able to get those easy ones out in transition," said Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza. "The last few games we've had a mismatch with Mark and he's able to take advantage of that. Our guys do a good job of giving him the ball, and our shooting has been pretty good. (Ron) and Nick (Dodson) have been able to knock down some shots on the outside as well."
Ridgewood came out of the gate running and gunning with the likes of Brian Burak and Zach Rzewnicki, hitting a couple quick 3s in the first quarter, but Metea's defense picked up late in the quarter.
The Mustangs took a 19-15 lead heading into the second when Konkle and Edwards got to work. Konkle found a couple mismatches he liked down low, and Edwards found rhythm with aggressive drives to the hoop and some outside shots.
The two helped Metea Valley get out to a 42-27 halftime lead as Edward had 11 points and Konkle had 10 of his 12 total points in the first half.
"The first few minutes I thought maybe they had more legs and we were kind of getting the rust off Christmas break," Vozzo said. "I thought we responded well on the defensive end, that's what got us going."
Edwards added 10 more points in the second half for a total of 21 as the Mustangs continued to outrun and outgun a Ridgewood side that started to settle for low-percentage shots.
"We're kinda used to run and gun," Edwards said. "We practice a lot what (they were) doing so we kind of knew what they were doing. We're used to running. Coach is always on us on defense, defense wins games and we just focused on defense to win this game."
The Mustangs had 10 players score, six with 5 points or more, and they forced 16 turnovers.