Metea Valley makes some noise at Lake Park
Metea Valley did itself a world of good when it raised the volume in the halftime locker room.
Despite a 21-point first-half run for Lake Park, the Mustangs came from behind to claim a 60-50 DuPage Valley Conference girls basketball victory in Roselle.
"Halftime was kind of silent," Mustangs senior Brianna Hall said, "and (then) a lot of yelling. It was good for us. It motivated us to finish out the last half. It was silent when we came in, and then it was, OK, we need to get our act together. We need to push. We need to win. It was good for us."
It sure was. After trailing 32-23 at halftime, the Mustangs retook the lead at 37-36 on a Janiece Thomas 10-foot baseline jumper with 1:25 left in the third quarter.
"We've been telling our kids since Day One, you have to deal with adversity," Mustangs coach Cedric Williams, who told his teammate at halftime to try to narrow the Lake Park lead to 3 by the start of the fourth quarter. "There are ups and downs in a game, it's going to come. It's how you're going to respond. I think our kids did a very good job of responding coming back from a (9)-point lead at halftime."
The Mustangs (8-10, 4-4) led 39-37 going to the fourth quarter, then gradually increased the margin.
"I think we were really motivated knowing that it's the second half of the season, we want to finish up strong, we want to finish up .500," Hall said. "Right now I think being 4-4 in conference is really good for us."
Metea Valley took a 12-5 first-quarter lead with a 10-0 run, then lost it when Lake Park (4-13, 3-5) scored the next 21 points, a streak that ended when Mustangs sophomore Tess Thompson hit a pair of free throws midway through the second quarter.
"We were concerned," Hall said. "We started to get down on ourselves. But our coach called time out. He motivated us. He told us, what do I need to do to get you guys back in this game? He pushed us and we pushed each other, and that's what brought us back."
Lake Park took that lead because it started raining 3-pointers from all over the arc. Five Lancers scored from behind the arc, with junior guard Carson Vance hitting four 3-pointers. She led all scorers with 22 points.
"Everyone was ready to shoot," Lancers coach Brian Rupp said of that run. "Everyone was ready to score. They put up balanced shots."
That changed in the second half, when even layups refused to fall for the Lancers.
"I don't feel like they did much different. We just didn't handle it the same way we did in the first half," Rupp said.
Hall led the Mustangs with 16 points, Thomas scored 13, Thompson 12 and Ashley Konkle 10.