Boys Basketball: Morgan Park turns up heat, drubs Limestone in Class 3A semifinal
By Pat Disabato pdisabato@southtownstar.com March 15, 2013 8:08PM
Morgan Park's Billy Garrett (5) playing against Limestone in game one of the state basketball semifinals. | Michelle LaVigne~Sun-Times Media
BOYS BASKETBALL
(All games at Peoria Civic Center)
FRIDAY’S CLASS 3A SEMIFINALS
Morgan Park 70, Limestone 49
Cahokia 56, Orr 46
FRIDAY’S CLASS 4A SEMIFINALS
Simeon 68, Proviso East 56
Stevenson 60, Edwardsville 49
SATURDAY’S GAMES
CLASS 3A
Limestone (24-10) vs. Orr (23-3), 12:15 p.m. (third place)
Morgan Park (32-3) vs. Cahokia
(33-3), 2 p.m. (championship)
CLASS 4A
Proviso East (29-4) vs. Edwardsville (30-3), 6:30 p.m. (third place)
Simeon (29-3) vs. Stevenson (29-4),
8:15 p.m. (championship)
Article Extras
Updated: April 18, 2013 6:30AM
PEORIA — Morgan Park heard the loud and clear message from coach Nick Irvin at halftime of Friday’s Class 3A state semifinal against Limestone.
The Mustangs may have enjoyed a 28-18 lead at the intermission, a margin most coach’s would relish. But it was clear they weren’t playing the style of basketball — pressuring the ball on defense and crashing the boards — that had earned them a 31-3 record entering the contest.
“I told them that we’re not playing Morgan Park basketball,” Irvin said. “We’re not playing ‘pressure breaks pipes’ basketball.”
Not only did Morgan Park play a “pressure breaks pipes” style of ball in the second half, relentlessly attacking Limestone, the Mustangs broke the Rockets’ hearts.
Morgan Park used a 19-1 run to start the second half and cruised to a 70-49 victory at Peoria’s Civic Center.
Kyle Davis and Billy Garrett Jr. shared scoring honors for Morgan Park with 15 points each. Xzavier Taylor added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Mustangs, who advance to the 3A title game Saturday against Cahokia.
“We came out of the locker room and told each other to go get it,” guard Kyle Davis said. “We only had a 10-point lead.”
That lead swelled to 29 points after three quarters.
Davis led the third-quarter barrage, teaming with Josh Cunningham to score the first 12 points of the period.
By the time Markee Williams dropped in a free throw, the No. 1 Mustangs led 47-19.
The lead grew to 54-25 heading into the fourth period.
“That was more of our style of play in the second half,” said Cunningham, who finished with eight points and eight rebounds.
While Morgan Park sliced and diced its way through Limestone’s zone defense, the Mustangs’ pressure defense rattled the Rockets (24-10).
“Defense is very important,” Garrett Jr. said. “We take a lot of pride in our defense. We just had to turn up the pressure on them.”
The Mustangs wasted little time wowing the large crowd when Garrett lofted a perfect alley-oop pass that Cunningham hammered home for a 2-0 lead.
From there, Morgan Park widened its advantage to 9-2 before Limestone closed the gap to 11-6 after one quarter.
Davis keyed a 9-0 run that widened the advantage to 20-9.
Davis scored nine points in the quarter, aggressively taking the ball to the basket, something the Mustangs needed to do more. They converted just 1-of-10 three-point attempts and were 11-of-27 from the field in the first half.
Just as it appeared Morgan Park was ready to pull away, back came Limestone behind Kendall Davis and Terrence Shelby, closing to within 26-18.
Two free throws by Garrett helped the Mustangs head into the locker room with a 10-point advantage.
“We have to carry our second-half performance over to Saturday,” Cunningham said. “We can’t come out and play the way we did in the first half. We have to be aggressive and attack the basketball.”
