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Hunter scores 33 in Metea Valley victory

Usually when a basketball player posts a personal record in points scored, he'll say he was in a "zone."

For Metea Valley senior Jeremy Hunter, who hung a personal-best 33 points on visiting Glenbard North in the Mustangs' 66-47 DuPage Valley Conference victory in Friday night, that "zone" was within arm's reach of the basket.

Of Hunter's 14 2-point baskets (he also made one 3-pointer), the vast majority were within 3 feet of the rim as the game turned into his personal layup line.

"I was just finding gaps in the defense and we were just overwhelming them with our offense and passing the ball," Hunter said. "My team kept giving me the ball and it just went in."

"Jer was really active today," added Metea coach Matt Walpole. "He's had some games where he's had trouble putting the ball in the net, but today he was finishing his shots."

In truth all of the Mustangs (6-13, 3-5) flourished on offense. They hit 29 of 48 field-goal attempts for the game. The deadeye shooting was most evident in the first quarter when Metea knocked down 9 of 13 shots and opened leads of 8-0 and 18-4 before settling for a 20-10 advantage after one quarter. Hunter scored 8 points and Ashton Creal and Payton Thorne added 4 apiece in the first period.

"Offensively, against their zone I liked there way the ball was moving," Walpole said. "We had some real quality shots."

Conversely, Glenbard North made just 3 of 11 shots and committed 9 turnovers in the quarter, which led to a slew of Mustangs runouts and fastbreak buckets. For the half the Panthers could muster just one 2-point basket, Wendell Pamfilo's first-quarter layup, with Kibet Chepyator connecting on two of the Panthers' five 3-pointers in the half.

"We didn't play very well, but give them credit - they came out with a ton of energy and they took it to us," said Glenbard North coach Joe Larson. "We had too many turnovers and that really cost us early. Hunter was also really aggressive tonight and we couldn't stop him."

Though the Panthers (10-8, 3-5) never got closer than 10 points, they were within 29-19 late in the second quarter after a 3-pointer by Aquil Spates, who made three 3-pointers on the evening and scored 11 points, which led Larson to identify him as Glenbard North's only bright spot on the evening. Then Hunter scored 6 points in the half's final 75 seconds to give him 21 points at the break and the Mustangs a 35-19 lead.

Creal, who finished with 18 points of his own, notched 10 points in the third quarter and Hunter added 8 more, capped by a breakaway dunk at the buzzer, as Metea opened the advantage to 54-34 with eight minutes to play.

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