Morgan Park KOs defending champ Hawks

Updated: March 23, 2011 3:48PM

No lead is safe against Morgan Park. That, Hillcrest discovered Wednesday night at Rich South.

The defending Class 3A champion Hawks led by nine points one minute into the second quarter. That was impressive, but hardly insurmountable. Morgan Park stormed back to lead by halftime, and controlled the second half en route to an 80-76 victory.

The outcome earned the Mustangs (20-6) a Friday night date with Public League champion Brooks for the sectional title and a berth in next week's supersectional.

"Brooks is a well-coached team and coming in on a high," Morgan Park coach Nick Irvin said. "They've got two of the best guards in the state in George Marshall and Mike Powell. It's going to be a another fight. We look forward to it."

The precision shooting of Billy Garrett Jr. and Wayne Blackshear in the second quarter brought the Mustangs both the lead and the momentum, allowing Irvin to turn his thoughts to Brooks.

Garrett started with with a pair of baskets, the second triggered by a Julius Brown turnover. Soon, Blackshear was contributing from outside with his lone three-pointer in a 28-point showing, and inside as well. Garrett (20 points) gave Morgan Park the lead to stay with his three-pointer with 3:41 left in the half.

"We've been in this position all season, so we kept our cool and stayed patient," Blackshear said of the rally.

From that point, Hillcrest (21-7) had to play catchup. The Hawks trailed by 12 points before commencing a rally, led by two three-pointers by Julius Brown and a similar shot by Cassel James helped bring Hillcrest back while the nearly full house of 1,300 went wild. But not all the way back, for Blackshear, he of the three textbook jams, including a windmill dunk with 10 seconds to play, proved too tough.

"He's a phenomenal player," Hillcrest coach Don Houston said. "We tried to deny him the ball, we tried to take him away. He still finds a way to get the ball and to score. We double-teamed, triple-teamed him, did everything we could.

"He had the will to win tonight."

Jerome Brown added 13 points for Morgan Park, while Terrence "Speedy" Quinn came off the bench for 12 while playing an important defensive role.

Julius Brown, who played on Hillcrest's varsity for four years, finished with 26 points, 15 of them in the second half, and might have had more had Quinn not played him tight defensively.

"For us to make a run for the state, I know we needed him back, and now we've got him back," Irvin said. "He did a good job on Julius."

The Mustangs did a good job on Hillcrest overall, even considering the Hawks' 51.8 percent shooting ratio, along with the double-figure scoring of Kadeem Thornton (16) and LeBarron Hull (12).

There were also 16 turnovers, including critical giveaways after the Mustangs' lead had been trimmed. A pair of errant passes by Jemel Kent and a walk by Brown were converted into five points by the Mustangs.

That helped rebuild the lead to 75-67 with 90 seconds to play. The final points of the night, a three-pointer by Brown at the buzzer, made the final margin closer than the run of play.

"Morgan Park's a great team," Houston said. "There can only be one state champ.

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