Girls Basketball: Morgan Park bounces Rich Central

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Updated: March 23, 2012 8:14AM

Back spasms kept Morgan Park senior guard Debra Jenkins out of Tuesday night’s Class 3A Hillcrest Sectional semifinal against Rich Central.

“It’s day to day with her,” a smiling Mustangs coach Thomas Johnson said after their 74-50 victory. “She’s like Derrick Rose.”

Senior Kendyll Nunn? She put up Rose-like numbers, scoring 25 points and pulling down 10 rebounds. Sophomore Shami Goodman added 24 points and Tammy Russell eight as No. 6 Morgan Park (22-8) advanced to Thursday night’s sectional final against Hillcrest.

No. 7 Rich Central (11-20) was led by Chaz Duson (20 points) and Layne Murphy (12 rebounds).

With Gabrielle Richmond out for most of the season with a knee injury, Nunn was the only senior on the floor for the Mustangs.

She had a good first half, scoring 11 points, but a physical battle in which few fouls were called resulted in a lot of frustration under the basket.

Rich Central’s finest moments came late in the half when the Olympians rallied from a 32-22 deficit when Duson, Murphy, Alex Stanford and Tyron Eubanks all scored during an 8-0 run.

It was 34-30 at halftime.

“It was frustrating, but coach said don’t worry about it,” Nunn said. “We just knew we had to go out and play hard, pick it up.”

Nunn served a dual purpose during a third period in which the Mustangs were able to stretch it out.

She was drawing fouls and scored 10 points, and also shut out Duson the entire eight minutes. It was 51-39 at the break.

“The game plan was for me to stop her offensively and stop her from getting rebounds,” she said. “We had been slacking on defense (in the first half), so defense was the main thing we were thinking about.”

Goodman and Russell slammed the door on the Olympians in the fourth quarter, extending the lead beyond 20 points.

But it was the third period that really did in Rich Central.

“Yeah, that was rough,” Olympians coach Bryan Craig said. “It felt like we ran out of gas. But overall, credit Morgan Park. Kendyll found her shot. That’s what I was trying to avoid. Once she found it, it was kind of downhill from there.”