Metea Valley turns the tables on Bartlett
The last time Metea Valley played Bartlett back in the second week of January the Mustangs were in the midst of a 7-game losing streak and lost by 11 points as the Hawks' Ryan DiCanio set a single-game school scoring record with 43 points.
A lot has changed in a little over a month.
A whole different team seemed to step into the Bartlett gymnasium on Friday as the Mustangs won their seventh game in a row with a convincing 61-44 victory over the Hawks in Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division boys basketball action.
"We were going through a rough stretch a month ago," Metea Valley coach Bob Vozza said. "We had hit the wall and lost some confidence. We have been able to regain that confidence. The turnaround really came on defense. We have really stepped up our intensity and level of play and that has carried over to the offensive end with a lot more transition opportunities."
Metea Valley (15-12, 8-5) went on an 8-0 run midway through the first quarter to jump out to a 12-5 advantage and never looked back. Nick Dodson and Maurice Helwig knocked down 3-pointers during the run.
The Mustangs started pounding it inside to 6-foot-7 Mark Konkle in the second quarter. The junior scored 10 of his game-high 18 points in the quarter as the Mustangs extended their lead to 33-19 at the half.
"He has been a horse for us all year," Vozza said. "When the matchups are favorable we are going to get him the ball as much as we can. When he gets a lot of touches we are a tough team to defend."
The Metea defense held Bartlett to just 17-of-48 (35 percent) shooting from the field. DiCanio was held scoreless until the second quarter, primarily by Dodson. DiCanio finished with 20 points, but most of those came after Metea had a comfortable lead.
"Tonight it was all about the defense," Konkle said. "Nick did a great job on DiCanio and collectively we did a very good job of rotating. That's really been the biggest change for us. We have really turned it up on defense."
Konkle made 8 of 12 of his shots from the field.
"Coach has some great plays to get everyone the ball." Konkle said. "And the guards did a great job of feeding me the ball in the right the spots to be successful."
Bartlett could not get any closer than 7 points in the second half as the Hawks fell to 18-9, 8-5 on senior night.
"We had a little different rotation tonight with the seniors getting a lot of playing of time," Bartlett coach Jim Wolfsmith said. "They played hard, but it was a little tough to get into our rhythm. Metea applied some pressure and we weren't able to get enough quality shots."