Morris shakes off slow start to down Gardner-South Wilmington 63-50 in Coal City tournament

COAL CITY – It’s been a wild couple of days for Morris High School. The football team was defeated in the state semifinals on Saturday and, prior to that, the boys basketball team had consisted of two regular varsity players and members of the freshman and sophomore teams. The full roster didn’t even get a chance to practice before playing its first game Monday or its second game Tuesday.

Early on against Gardner-South Wilmington Tuesday evening, the lack of practice together was noticeable. By the time the second half came around, though, Morris was clicking well enough to get the 63-50 win over the Panthers in the Coal City Tournament.

Morris (2-0) fell behind early as the team struggled with communication in the opening quarter. A 9-0 run to close the first half gave Morris a four-point edge at the midway point and they continued to stretch its lead each quarter. The sheer talent of Morris’ roster stood out as Jack Wheeler scored 24 points and Brett Bounds put up 23.

Still, coach Joe Blumberg said that while Morris played better down the stretch, he’d like to see the team develop more their chemistry more with increased practice time.

“We had better movement without the ball and better shot selection (late in the first half),” Blumberg said. “We still haven’t had a practice with all our guys yet and we had to use a lot of energy to beat a good Timothy Christian team last night. I don’t think our legs were there. I don’t want to make excuses and Gardner took us out of some things with their triangle offense.

“I thought our rebounding got better and so did our shot selection near the end of the second quarter. That eased the pressure of having to score in a half-court set after we stood around a lot early. ... We’ve got to get healthy, we have to get our full roster back, but whether we have basketball legs or not, we need to always be communicating better on the floor. It doesn’t take any talent to talk.”

The game was back and forth for much of the first quarter. A 3-pointer by Logan Conger gave GSW its largest lead of the evening at 17-10 with 1:25 left in the opening period. A free throw by Wheeler and a layup by RJ Kennedy with 15 seconds to go cut the Morris deficit to 17-13 entering the second.

A 3-pointer by Bounds a minute into the second trimmed the disadvantage to one, but a trey by Cameron Gray later put the Panthers up by five. However, with 2:36 left in the half, Wheeler started the 9-0 run with a layup followed immediately by a Colin Pfeifer layup to make it just 21-20. Wheeler put Morris in front for good with another layup with 1:31 left and a Bounds three made it 25-21 at halftime.

Momentum remained in Morris’ favor in the third, but both offenses picked up as GSW attempted to keep pace. With under a minute left in the third, Wheeler made a turnaround layin to give Morris a 43-35 lead, but a floater by Cooper Biros cut it right back to single digits. A steal and score by Wheeler gave Morris a 45-36 edge entering the fourth.

Holden Grimes made a layup early in the fourth, but a layup by Kennedy was followed by a steal and dunk by Wheeler to give Morris a double-digit lead, 49-38. Bounds hit a pair of threes down the stretch to give Morris a 13-point lead, which was the final margin.

GSW (0-2) was led by Conger and Grimes, who each had 13 points, while Cole Hampson and Jarrek Hirsch each scored eight.

“I feel like we played and competed a lot better today than we did last night,” GSW coach Allan Willis said. “Yesterday against Coal City we had twenty-something turnovers and gave up twenty-something offensive rebounds. I think we probably cut those in half today so I like that. Obviously, I’m not happy with losing, but I like that we competed a lot better today.”

As for Morris, the squad will practice Wednesday as a full team for the first time. Wheeler believes as the team builds chemistry, they’ll only get better as the year goes on.

“Our first game yesterday it was hard to get up and down the court twice because it’s a lot different than football,” he said. “We haven’t had any plays, so we were just out there trying to be more physical and faster than they were. It’s worked so far, but we have our first practice tomorrow so hopefully we’ll be a lot better and smoother by Friday.”