Extra effort lifts Metea Valley

Metea Valley might have been lacking intensity on defense lately, but not Saturday night against rival Waubonsie Valley.

The host Mustangs forced 28 turnovers, earning a 50-30 girls basketball victory in Aurora.

"I think today they played all four quarters the way we ask them to play the game," Metea coach Cedric Williams said. "They came out with some energy, some hustle, some effort. Everything we asked them to do, they did it. I think it was the first time we've seen that."

A little extra incentive didn't hurt.

"We had a good spark and we wanted to win because they're Waubonsie and they're our rivals," added Metea Valley senior Taseandra Parker.

The Mustangs (11-8, 4-4 Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division) scored the game's first 12 points, forcing 7 Warriors turnovers in that span, several of which led to layups.

"It's just we turned it over too much and we have a hard time scoring," Warriors coach David Owles said. "That's been our issues all year, and it really wasn't any different tonight."

Waubonsie Valley got as close as 7 points in the second quarter, but Metea led 26-16 at halftime. The Mustangs put even more distance between themselves and the Warriors in the third quarter, with the margin peaking at 25 points.

The timing of the Mustangs' runs was no coincidence, just a matter of listening to the coach.

"He said that the first and third quarters always win games, to come hard those quarters and we'll have the game," Parker said. "So that's what we did."

Lisa Logan and Cheyenne Krehl led the Mustangs with 11 points apiece, and Parker added 10, plus 4 steals and 2 blocked shots.

Abbey Glavin led the Warriors (1-17, 0-8) with 11 points, and Janiece Thomas contributed 10. Both are sophomores.

"The difference is we come out in the second half, we're either going to make a game of it or fall further behind, and we never got over the hump to get really close," said Owles, who was happy with his players' effort. "Then we started dropping like flies. The five on the floor were the only five who could play. Everybody else was hurt. It kind of snowballed on us."

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