Girls Basketball: Metea Valley holds off Hinsdale South
Updated: January 25, 2012 9:52PM
One of the goals for Metea Valley’s girls basketball team in its first year with a senior class was to get to .500.
It took 22 games, but Wednesday’s 46-42 nonconference win over Hinsdale South finally has the Mustangs at the .500 mark, 11-11.
Metea took an 11-point lead early in the second quarter, withstood a Hornets rally, and finished the game with a 5-1 surge in the final 1:13 to secure the win.
“I think one goal was to get to .500,” Metea coach Kris Kalivas said. “It took us a while to get here, but we’re finally here. That is a good milestone for us, and obviously a lot better than last season (7-22).”
Six straight points from Amira Turner helped fuel an 8-0 run that staked Metea to a 16-5 lead early in the second quarter. Hinsdale South (15-5) responded, however.
The Hornets went on a 13-2 run that started in the second quarter and culminated at the 6:39 mark of the third quarter to rally and take a 24-22 lead. Uzo Okoro scored eight straight points in that run.
The Mustangs was in a tight game in Saturday’s upset win over Neuqua Valley, however, and responded. A 7-0 run pushed the lead to 29-24, but Metea never trailed again. Hinsdale South tied the game twice and cut the Metea lead to one on four other occasions the rest of the game, but the Hornets were never able to wrestle the lead away.
“Neuqua prepared us for a back-and-forth game, so I thought we handled that well today and stayed composed for the four quarters, so that was good to see,” Kalivas said. “We were in that situation several times on Saturday. We never really lost confidence.”
When the Mustangs fell behind early in the third quarter, they showed how they have improved from last season.
“It shows how much we’ve come together as a team,” Turner said. “We wouldn’t have come back as much. We would have hung our heads. We want to win. I think that’s what really got us together.”
Turner was an offensive force for Metea, scoring a game-high 16 points to go with seven rebounds. Anna Petersen hit all of her shots from the field en route to 10 points and a team-high eight rebounds. Okoro paced the Hornets with 13 points and she and Andrea McNally each grabbed eight rebounds. Toni Romiti added eight points.
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