Harries carries Hillcrest; Mustangs prevail

Updated: March 23, 2011 3:04PM

Karlisa Harris was quite the firestarter for Hillcrest in Tuesday night's 74-46 victory over Rich South in a Class 3A Rich East Sectional semifinal.

The junior guard came off the bench very early and lit up the Stars for eight first-quarter points. She finished with a team-high 18 points.

"I wanted to win bad," Harris said after her season-high effort. "Rich South was talking about how they wanted to beat us. I just tried to make something happen."

Harris was tops in points, but senior Yolanda De La Torre had the most complete effort for the Hawks (26-2) with 14 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists, nine steals and seven blocks.

Jahmia Phillips added 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Shannise Heady 13 points and six rebounds for Hillcrest.

Rich South (22-6) received 13 points and six rebounds from Jasmine Collins and 11 points and eight rebounds from Kiela Garner.

Rich South coach Brian Mays, hospitalized with chest discomfort since Sunday, was released under doctor's care Tuesday afternoon and guided the team Tuesday night.

Harris's hot start allowed the Hawks to race to an 18-8 lead after one quarter. The Stars, who had three players foul out, would get no closer than eight the rest of the way.

"The pressure that they put, that's Hillcrest and you've got to tip your hat to them," said Mays, who was even more complimentary about some of the assists by De La Torre that brought gasps from the crowd.

"Isn't she something?" Mays said, smiling. "It's a shame she's not a point guard, because she sees everything.

"I mean, the ball just doesn't even stay in her hand. She knows where people are. Robert Morris is getting a good player."

Morgan Park 69, T.F. North 55: If beauty points were awarded in basketball, they wouldn't have been Morgan Park's most impressive stat in Tuesday night's victory over T.F. North.

"Ha, ha. I don't know how many we'd get because I don't know how they'd calculate beauty points," the Mustangs' Raven Nelson said. "I guess we're just not used to playing late."

Nelson led the way with 22 points, and Gabrielle Richmond and Debra Jenkins nine each for the Mustangs (27-4), who will meet Hillcrest on Thursday night to decide the sectional title.

Nikki Anderson and Amber Patterson-Moss had 10 points each for T.F. North (20-11).

The Mustangs struggled on offense at times, but were very effective at was shutting down T.F. North even more. The Meteors were just 22-of-70 from the field.

Morgan Park started out fast, going up 17-8 after one quarter behind Nelson's nine points. But the scoring pace slowed dramatically amid a bevy of turnovers and missed shots by both teams. It was 26-14 at the half.

Nelson kept shooting, and her four buckets in the third period allowed Morgan Park to stretch the advantage to a more comfortable margin.

"We were just not able to get into any kind of momentum at all," T.F. North coach Tim Zasada said. "When we do really well we go in spurts. I don't think we even had a 4-0 run until the very end.

"Morgan Park is a pretty special team. They do a lot of things that seem trivial. But they hit their free throws and make some open shots. We did the opposite."

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