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Boys Basketball: Metea Valley captures Upstate Eight Valley title
| Corey R. Minkanic~For Sun-Times Media
Updated: February 12, 2012 1:23AM
Metea Valley appeared to be in danger of letting another one slip away, but not this time.
Getting a second-half spark from senior guard Ryan Solomon and junior center Shiv Desai, the No. 13 Mustangs bounced back from back-to-back losses to claim a 62-58 win Saturday over district rival Waubonsie Valley.
“That’s just too good a team to lose three in a row,” said Waubonsie Valley coach Steve Weemer.
On the second-year varsity program’s first Senior Night, coach Bob Vozza’s team avenged its lone Upstate Eight Valley loss. More importantly, the Mustangs locked up their first conference title with an 11-1 record (21-3 overall).
The Warriors had a shot at a share of the crown but fall to 16-8 and 8-3.
Waubonsie Valley had rallied from a 31-26 halftime deficit before a nearly full house of 1,910 with a 14-6 run to take a 40-37 lead. Solomon then came up with a steal and coast-to-coast layup. On the next possession, he grabbed a long rebound and went two-thirds the length of the court for another layup that gave his team a 41-40 lead.
It started a 12-2 run that helped Metea Valley regain control.
Meanwhile, Desai was blocking four second-half Waubonsie Valley shots.
“Solomon’s steals were the turning point,” said Weemer. “We were up but that got the crowd back into it and woke them up. The other key factor was 54 (Desai). By blocking those shots he started altering our shots. He even had a couple putbacks, himself.”
Milan Bojanic had 15 points, Sean Davis 11 and Kenny Obendorf 10 to help the home team offset a game-high 20 by the Warriors’ Bryan Jefferson and 18 from Jared Brownridge. Jefferson also had 12 rebounds.
“It feels great considering all the work these senior have put in since we started the program three years ago,” said Vozza. “To be able to succeed in a game like this where you have your ups and downs and things go wrong. These kids always make that run, and they obviously did in the second half.
“In the third quarter, I don’t know if we felt we had it in hand or what. We shouldn’t have because we haven’t put teams away and we knew Waubonsie was gonna come out and give it their best shot. They have all year. Ryan had a huge steal and (those baskets) kind of gave us our confidence back.”
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