Naperville North gets final run vs. Metea Valley
Friday night's Naperville North at Metea Valley boys basketball game was about exchanging scoring runs.
But it was the Huskies that got the last one that counted, and they went home 58-54 winners to maintain their one-game lead over Waubonsie Valley in the DuPage Valley Conference race. The Warriors were idle Friday.
"We knew it would be a close game. Metea has some great players. We're happy with the outcome," said Tom Welch, who led all scorers with 22 points.
Naperville North (14-10, 6-1) went on an 8-2 run to lead 56-49 with 1:01 remaining in the contest. That would be the scoring run that secured the win for the Huskies.
But the team had to hold off a last charge by the Mustangs (11-13, 2-4) as Metea scored five of the game's last seven points.
"It was a game of scoring runs," said Huskies coach Gene Nolan. "I'm proud of our kids. We got key stops late. It wasn't our best defensive game, but Metea had a lot to do with that."
The Mustangs led 12-8 at the end of the first eight minutes. Naperville North shot just 3 of 11 from the field during the quarter.
That changed in the second quarter when the Huskies erupted for 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field. Naperville North led at halftime 28-26.
"We didn't come out strong and that has happened this season," Welch said. "Myles Barry is a great leader and he told us to pick it up."
Barry followed Welch on the scoresheet with 14 points.
An example of the ebb and flow of the game occurred in the second quarter. The Huskies took their second 9-point advantage of that period on a basket by Welch with 2:30 remaining until halftime. Metea then proceeded to close out the first half on a 9-2 run.
The three Mustangs, that all scored in double digits for the game, were a part of that spurt.
Myles Leavy hit his third of six 3-pointers. He led his team with 20 points. Another basket came from Ethan Helwig, who finished with 13 points, and from Tahj Morgan, who racked up 10 points.
Metea coach Matt Walpole said Leavy's aggressiveness on offense has been crucial to the Mustangs.
"Myles has a killer mindset on offense. He has confident in himself and he should be," Walpole said.
It was a night of many positives for Metea, just not enough of them.
"It's attention to detail. We do everything right 85 percent of the time. The other 15 percent, we have to coach them up to do those things," Walpole said. "We've played with a lot of high-quality basketball teams. We're just not seeing the results."
Naperville North, which also got 11 points from Riley Thompson, travels to Plainfield North on Saturday.