Morris rallies down the stretch to defeat Dixon

DIXON – Every time Dixon built a lead, Morris came roaring back – and the final surge was enough to put it over the top.

Led by Layken Callahan’s stellar fourth quarter, Morris rallied for a 53-48 victory over the Duchesses on Friday at Lancaster Gym.

“We’re used to that situation. We’ve had multiple games where it’s been really close and we’ve had to come up with big plays,” said Callahan, who scored 19 of Morris’ 24 points in the final period.

[ Photos from Morris at Dixon girls basketball ]

Morris (15-1) trailed 37-32 and 41-36 early in the fourth quarter after 3-pointers by Dixon’s Morgan Hargrave, but battled back each time. Callahan’s three-point play with 4:58 left cut the deficit to one, then she banked in a 3 and drove the baseline and dished to Lily Hansen for a layup to tie the game 41-41 with 3:08 to play.

She hit a pull-up jumper to tie it again at 43 after Dixon’s Hallie Williamson scored a putback, then Hansen scored again inside to give Morris a 45-43 lead with 1:49 remaining – just its third lead of the game.

“I think we all finally started working as a team, and we started getting some good boards and had some good shots to help us get back,” Callahan said. “One person made a shot, and all of us started going.”

Ahmyrie McGowan turned a steal at half-court into a layup as the Duchesses (14-3) tied it at 45 with 1:18 to play, then after Callahan hit a pair of free throws, Williamson converted a three-point play out of a Dixon timeout for a 48-47 lead.

But Layken Callahan nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key off a kickout pass from Hansen for a 50-48 lead with 35 seconds left, then Landrie Callahan blocked a shot on a drive to the basket with 15 seconds left for a key stop. Layken Callahan hit two free throws and Landrie Callahan went 1 for 2 from the line over the final 10 seconds to seal it.

“Layken stepped up huge with her shooting, and we just made some big strides finally. We held together when they made their runs,” Morris coach Mike Lutz said. “We haven’t moved the ball real well prior to this, and I thought we got a lot of people touches with our ball movement to get good shots. Our defense is coming around, too, and our offensive boards were big.”

The offensive glass was key for Morris, as it converted 17 offensive rebounds into 13 second-chance points. Morris out-rebounded the Duchesses 43-37, including 17-10 on the offensive glass.

“We just talked about making sure we push the out when we get to the spot, just really box them out,” Dixon’s Williamson said. “They had some pretty tall players, so it was definitely a rough one on the rebounding end tonight.”

“We have to keep pushing back,” Hargrave added. “Boxing out is one of the hardest things to do in basketball, and we’ve just got to keep fighting and pushing through, just keep working.”

Layken Callahan led all scorers with 23 points, and she also had six rebounds and three steals. Landrie Callahan added a double-double with 15 points, 11 rebounds and two assists, and Hansen finished with nine points, 10 rebounds, four assists and four steals. Tessa Shannon chipped in five points, eight rebounds and three assists for Morris.

Williamson had 15 points, seven rebounds and two assists for Dixon, and Reese Dambman added 12 points, three rebounds and two assists. Hargrave hit three 3s to go with three rebounds, and McGowan stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, eight rebounds, four assists, four steals and three blocked shots. Makenzie Toms chipped in two points, four rebounds and four steals.

After a couple of rough shooting games to finish their own tournament last week, the Duchesses bounced back a bit, but still dropped their third game in a row.

“It was very nice just to see some shots go in early, because after the last two games, we needed that – it was very encouraging,” Williamson said. “Even though we lost, it was still an improvement from those last two games.

“We knew this was going to be a big game for us, and we wanted this more for just us and ourselves, not even just the win, but to get back on track,” Hargrave added. “It’s unfortunate to come up with the loss, but we know we have to keep pushing. It’s not going to bring us down.”