Metea Valley savors blowout victory in DVC
Ethan Helwig and his Metea Valley boys basketball teammates were smarting after losing by 30 points to Glenbard West on Wednesday.
Forty-eight hours later, they made sure it was Naperville Central feeling the pain.
Helwig poured in a game-high 24 points, including 4 3-pointers, and sophomore forward Tahj Morgan added 10 points off the bench as the host Mustangs thumped Naperville Central 67-41 on Friday in a DuPage Valley Conference opener.
"We know we're a lot better than last year and we just came off a 30-point loss to Glenbard West," Helwig said. "We just wanted our redemption, so I think we got it here tonight."
That's a fact. Helwig wasn't shy about jacking up shots and neither were his teammates, who had the Redhawks off-balance from the start.
Helwig sank an early 3-pointer but actually missed 4 of his first 5 attempts. But Morgan, who went 5 for 5, all in the first half, scored on a putback and a steal and layup and Manny Hess sank a pair of jumpers in the lane as Metea Valley (4-2, 1-0) jumped out to a 12-0 lead.
"I just played my butt off, just did the best I could to help my team win," said Morgan, whose final basket was an emphatic dunk just before halftime. "When I played travel basketball for Illinois Blades, I had 34 in a tournament game, but to come out with 10 today to help my team out, it was a pleasure."
The fun was widespread for the Mustangs, who got 8 points apiece from Hess and Ernest Neal and 6 out of reserve Kymari McBride. The game was never competitive as the Redhawks (0-5, 0-1) trailed 33-8 following Neal's 3 off a Helwig assist.
"It was all in the game plan," Helwig said of the potent attack. "We wanted to get everyone involved and I think we did that very well."
The key, Helwig said, was getting good ball movement against Naperville Central's matchup zone.
"When we move the ball, they tend to leave shooters open, which you could see tonight and we kind of got a lot of 3s," Helwig said. "When they came to the shooters, the slips were wide open for the layups, so I think we had a good all-around game."
Indeed, the Mustangs shot 51 percent from the floor, 80 percent from the line and outrebounded the Redhawks 29-18 despite clearing the bench at the end of the third quarter.
"We had amazing ball movement," Morgan said. "We got the ball inside a lot, kicked out to shooters.
"Ethan made some amazing 3s and we crashed and got boards and putbacks, came out with a win."
Cameron Daugherty scored 13 of his team-high 19 points in the second half for the Redhawks, who shot 6 for 26 in the first half and had no other player tally more than 6 points.
"We've got a lot to learn," Naperville Central coach Pete Kramer said. "We're a young team and it showed tonight.
"When you can't knock shots down and the other team is knocking shots down, it ends up being a tough night."