On Friday, Feb. 7, the Naperville North varsity boys basketball team endured a hard-fought defeat against the Metea Valley Mustangs at home.
The Huskies (15-12) lost to the Mustangs (15-10) with a final score of 61-48.
The Huskies came out of the gate playing a physical brand of basketball, causing a jump ball in the first few minutes of play and getting the opening score. Metea answered quickly with back-to-back scores and matched the Huskies’ intensity with an aggressive press defense. The Huskies were able to battle back and ended the first quarter down 1 after a 3-pointer from junior guard Max Steele (5). As the second quarter started, Metea got rolling again with a dunk coming off of a fast break. However, the Huskies kept fighting and kept the game close throughout the rest of the half, continuing to play aggressive and physical as seen through tough rebounds brought in and scores in the paint from junior center Will Harvey (22). The Huskies ended the half down 35-30. Harvey spoke on the Huskies’ mentality going into the game.
“Our main thing is to come in physical to every game, I thought we came out pretty physical tonight, we should have played better defensively but we gotta go back to the drawing board and see what we can do from there,” Harvey said.
To start the second half, the Huskies continued to play hard-nosed basketball, leading to a foul right out of the gate. Metea also continued playing forcefully, as they were in control of the game. The Mustangs hit a 3-pointer right away following the foul, and kept widening the lead, reaching their biggest lead of the night: up 14 points. Steele and the Huskies kept battling, knocking down a 3-pointer to stay in the game, but Metea quickly answered with one of their own. Throughout the rest of the game, the Mustangs stayed in control and forced the Huskies to start fouling. Metea hit most of their free throws, which helped ensure their lead, and they ultimately knocked off the Huskies. Head Coach Gene Nolan remarked on the Huskies’ loss.
“ I thought we executed well in the first half, in the fourth quarter other than them shooting free throws late, I thought we played defensively pretty well for the first 6 minutes of the quarter. We just have to put together a 32 minute game, but there were segments that were great that we can really learn from,” Nolan said.
Although the Huskies were coming off of a 3 game winning streak, they saw the same result the last time they played Metea. With only 3 games left in the season, the Huskies will be able to view this game as a lesson for how they want to not only finish the season, but how they need to improve going into the playoffs.
The Huskies’ next game is on Tuesday, Feb. 11 at home against South Elgin at 7 p.m.
