Boys Basketball: Stevenson rallies past Glenbard West

Updated: January 31, 2012 11:30PM

Glenbard West appeared ready to win a tight game that featured nine ties and nine lead changes.

Then Matt Morrissey came to the rescue for Stevenson. The sophomore guard made two big three-pointers, including the go-ahead trey with 3:30 remaining, to spark the visiting Patriots to a 54-45 victory Tuesday night in Glen Ellyn.

“We find our spots, find our seams and Matt Morrissey has really improved a lot this year, so I’m very happy for him,” Stevenson coach Pat Ambrose said. “He’s a sophomore who missed part of his freshman year last year so at the start of the year we said, ‘Yeah, you’re a freshman.’ But he’s done a great job for us.”

Glenbard West (12-4) took a 40-35 lead on a three-pointer by Matt Mache 12 seconds into the fourth quarter, but that would be the last basket scored by the Hilltoppers.

The hosts led 42-37 when Morrissey, who had attempted only four shots to that point, drained his first three. That triggered a game-ending 18-3 run by the Patriots (13-8), who tied the game at 42-42 on a putback by Andrew Stempel and went ahead to stay when Morrissey drained another trey off an inbounds pass from freshman Jalen Brunson.

“We just talk about if you’re open, shoot it,” Morrissey said. “The whole game I wasn’t getting looks but at the end of the game I was open, so coach just told me to shoot and that’s what I did.”

Mike Fleming, who led all scorers with 16 points, added a three-pointer with 1:47 left to make it 48-43. The Hilltoppers, who made only 8 of 17 free-throw attempts, never got closer than four points after that as Brunson, who was 6-of-6 from the line, made four free throws and Colby Cashaw made two for the Patriots, who sank 12 of 15 foul shots.

“We kind of took our time to get it going but we did, and that’s the best time to do it, fourth quarter,” Ambrose said. “We’ve been talking about finishing strong in games and they did it.”

Cashaw gave a great effort in the middle, finishing with 12 points, nine rebounds and seven blocks while battling Glenbard West’s big front line of 6-8 center Pat Mazza and 6-6 twins Matt and Mike Mache. Brunson added 10 points and eight rebounds, while Morrissey had eight points and six boards for the Patriots, who have won three of their last four after suffering a six-game losing streak that followed a nine-game winning streak.

“We had a bad losing streak in the middle of the season but we’ve said these last seven games will (create) a big momentum for the end of the season,” Morrissey said. “So we (are going to) make sure we’ll get these last couple wins and go into the playoffs with momentum.”

Mike Mache led the Hilltoppers with 12 points, while Mazza, who had a game-high 14 rebounds, Jeff Levesque and Egan Montgomery all tallied six points.

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