Morton storms back to nip Streator 54-50 in matchup of No. 2 seeds

STREATOR – The Streator Bulldogs carried a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter of their Wednesday night matchup against Morton and played as well in the fourth quarter as they had in the first three to build that advantage.

The Potters – the No. 5 team in Class 3A in the final Associated Press poll – simply shot their way out of the hole and into a 54-50 victory at Pops Dale Gymnasium.

After being limited to 27 points on 27.8% shooting through the game’s first three quarters, Morton scored 27 points over the final eight minutes on 66.7% accuracy. That included 6-of-7 shooting from 3-point range, junior sharpshooter Alex McKie nailing four of those 3s on his first four fourth-quarter shots to deflate the Bulldogs' hopes of a statement upset before regionals.

“I was just feeling confident,” McKie said. “You know, our team needed a little bit of a spark, and I felt like I needed to give us that spark and get us back in it. And we have players all around us giving me the ball as well. I trust them, they trust me, and I trust myself.”

Morton (23-6) and Streator (23-7) are the No. 2 seeds on their respective sides of the 3A Washington Sectional and the top seeds in their regionals – Streator at La Salle-Peru, head coach Abe Zeller’s Potters at Dunlap. With that in mind, Wednesday’s varsity-only matchup was a late add to the schedule.

And it was a good one.

“We had them on the ropes in the third quarter,” Bulldogs coach Beau Doty said, “and I don’t think really we let them off. I think they just took the game and showed why they’re the fifth-ranked [3A] team in the state. ...

“But we looked at it as a game where we thought we matched up with them positionally from the defensive side, and there were so many great individual plays by all of our kids tonight. We just play so hard. It’s a joy to coach these guys.”

Following a game-opening 3-point swish from Streator senior Blaize Bressner off a drive-and-dish Tristan Finley assist, the Potters rattled off a 10-0 run, showing the explosiveness on both ends that’s made them a central Illinois powerhouse this winter.

With a workmanlike effort typical of its season, however, Streator climbed back in it. The Bulldogs pieced together an 11-0 run of their own, one capped off by a Matt Williamson NBA-distance 3-pointer two and a half minutes into the second that put the hosts ahead 14-10.

Streator led 23-19 at the half and – led by a huge third quarter from center Nolan Lukach – 37-27 heading into the fourth quarter. In that final stanza, the Bulldogs shot better (54.5%) than they had through three quarters and were in line with their per-quarter turnovers (five against Morton’s swarming pressure defense, 21 for the game), but could not stop McKie and Co. on the other end.

After a quarter-opening 2 from Potters big man Wes Gudeman (13 points, eight rebounds for the game), McKie (20 points) converted on four straight 3-point shots, with point guard Tripp Rugaard (16 points) adding two more 3s. Though Streator kept scoring, Morton caught the Bulldogs at 46-46 on a Gudeman leaner before the halfway point of the fourth quarter and kept right on scoring on its way to the four-point victory.

“You’re never happy about a loss,” Williamson said, “but I think we’re going to go in the film room – and there’s obviously stuff we did wrong that led to the way the game ended – and see [Morton] just played well in the fourth quarter. They weren’t missing any shots. We were answering back, but they weren’t missing.

“I think we played well though. Maybe we’ll see them again, hopefully.”

An offensive rebound and lay-in right at the final horn gave Lukach yet another double-double, finishing with 16 points, 10 rebounds and three blocked shots, all team-highs. Williamson added 10 points, three assists and a pair of blocks, Bressner was 3-of-4 shooting for eight points, and Isaiah Weibel chipped in five points.