When Metea Valley senior point guard Khalil Jones is at his best, he’s a like a puppet master pulling the strings in all the right places.
Only he knows what he will do, but all of his teammates follow.
“Khalil is an excellent floor general,” Metea Valley coach Isaiah Davis said. “He has a really good feel for the game and just understanding of it.
‘He knows how to put the guys in the right spots. It’s like having a coach on the floor.”
This has endeared Jones to teammates such as senior forward Dominic Smith.
“It’s great because you play with more confidence,” Smith said. “You know that he can find you when you’re cutting.
“You can do all the things that a basketball team is supposed to do, play free, and you know he’ll find you when you’re open.”
Jones, a St. Laurence transfer, demonstrated that while lifting the host Mustangs to a 59-43 DuPage Valley Conference victory against Naperville North in Aurora on Friday night. He finished with 16 points on 8-of-11 shooting, six rebounds and four assists.
“This season, for sure, it was one of my better games,” Jones said. “Not only scoring, but controlling tempo, leading the team, playmaking, playing defense, being active, all that.”
It didn’t take Jones long to make his mark. He started the scoring by sinking a pull-up jumper as the Mustangs (7-2, 2-1) made their first three shots.
But Naperville North (6-3, 1-2) was equally hot in the early going, making 5 of 6 shots in the first quarter, which ended in a 10-10 tie.
“We started off tight but just kept our focus on what we needed to do — spread the floor, attack gaps — and we kept working hard,” Jones said.
Jones has an innate sense of what to do and when to do it. In the second quarter, that meant handling the ball and getting open shots for his teammates. He didn’t score in the quarter until he hit a pull-up jumper to make it 27-18 at the 2:29 mark. The Huskies called a timeout, but that failed to slow down Jones, who scored on the next two possessions.
Jones then dove on the floor to get a loose ball, which resulted in Metea Valley junior guard Tre Watkins scoring on a drive just before the halftime buzzer for a 33-18 lead. Watkins also scored 16 points.
“Everything started flowing,” Jones said. “That’s a good team over there. They worked hard and played hard.
“We just listened to our coaches and kept going, kept pushing, never laid off the gas.”
Indeed, Jones blunted a comeback effort by the Huskies by making his final three shots of the third quarter, including a drive that made it 44-32 and prompted another timeout.
“I was in rhythm for sure,” Jones said. “Coach told me to keep that attacking mindset, spread the defense out, attack the gaps and find the open spots.”
Jones did more of the latter in the fourth quarter. He got a defensive rebound and then found the streaking Smith for a transition layup, and the Huskies again called timeout.
Naperville North junior guard/forward Miles Okyne, who scored 13 of his game-high 17 points in the second half, made a 3-pointer, but it was just a speed bump for the Mustangs as Watkins dunked off an assist from Jones.
Smith followed with a pair of traditional 3-point plays to extend the lead to 54-40 with 3:04 remaining. Jones assisted on the first one.
“He’s been real good,” Smith said of Jones. “He does whatever we need him to do, which is slow the game down, play more under control, and then he can also go out and score when we need buckets.”
All of which has the Mustangs in a good mood after winning two straight DVC games.
“The kids are playing really well,” Davis said. “They like each other, and they really jell well together.
“Khalil handles the ball so well and plays with great pace, finishes all around the rim and makes great passes and great decisions. He’s just a really good player for us.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter.
