Metea Valley perseveres, rallies to top Naperville North
At the end of this girls basketball season, Metea Valley hopes it can look back at Saturday's victory as a turning point.
Despite going scoreless the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, the Mustangs went on an 18-7 run to defeat host Naperville North 57-51 in a DuPage Valley Conference game in Naperville.
"All our season is going up from here," Metea Valley senior Janiece Thomas said. "Tough losses, but we're going to fight hard every time.
"It's a big opportunity for us, a big booster for our confidence," Metea Valley coach Cedric Williams added. "The kids worked very well. We did some good things, and it paid off."
After a 1-6 start to the season, Williams has talked with his players about handling adversity. They responded Saturday.
"Just continue to stay focused, continue to stay consistent," Williams said. "That's what they did. We know that it's going to be a roller coaster. Any game is going to have its ups and downs, highs and lows. Just keep your composure, and that's what they did."
The fourth quarter didn't start well for the Mustangs (2-6, 1-1). They went scoreless the first three-plus minutes of the period as the Huskies (3-2, 1-1) took a 44-39 lead.
The Mustangs caught a break when Huskies 6-foot-4 center Sadie Jurkovic fouled out with 4:45 to play, leaving the post open for them offensively.
A Brianna Hall basket tied the score at 46 with 2:20 to play. Huskies freshman Kara Rivard hit a pair of free throws to give Naperville North the lead back, but it didn't last long.
"It's a little bit of a younger team, and we're learning," Huskies coach Jason Dycus said. "We'll get there. We'll get better. They're good girls, they work hard. They just can't be afraid of the moment. You've got to be able to take it when it's there, and it was there."
Ashley Konkle scored the next two baskets, giving Metea Valley the lead for good with 55 seconds left.
"Our coaches told us to dig in, make the free throws when they count, get easy buckets and we're going to win the game," Thomas said.
Konkle led Metea Valley with 16 points and 8 rebounds. Thomas added 14 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals, and Hall scored 12 points.
Lauren Platou led the Huskies with 18 points, Morgan Lockridge added 15, Rivard 12 and Jurkovic 6.
"We struggle scoring the ball," Dycus said. "I talked to the girls about that. Our defense and rebounding has a tremendous amount of pressure on them because we don't score much. When you only have four girls that score, that's tough."
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