Boys Basketball: Billy Garrett too much as Morgan Park tops Vocational

Updated: January 11, 2012 8:35PM

Billy Garrett, Jr. gets knocked around in practice – a lot. So when the junior guard continually attacked the basket for Morgan Park and ended up on the floor it seemed like no big deal to him.

Garrett scraped himself off the ground and made his free throws to lead the host Mustangs to a 58-53 win over Vocational in a Red-South Public League battle.

“The one thing that (coach) Nick (Irvin) teaches us is to be tough,” Garrett said. “The contact is way worse in practice. It didn’t faze us one bit.”

Garrett was perfect on all 10 of his second-half free throws including two with 6:15 left to play that put Morgan Park (8-4, 4-0) ahead to stay at 50-48. Garrett used his 6-5 frame to work around and over the Cavaliers (12-6, 3-2) defense on his way to a game-high 30 points.

“If Billy takes us far, then we are going far,” Irvin said. “He is taking on the role of Wayne Blackshear for us this year.”

Blackshear is the former Morgan Park star who has taken his game to Louisville. Garrett, like Blackshear, took the lead and kept his team in the game in the first quarter when Vocational led 20-12. Garrett scored eight first-quarter points to keep the Mustangs close and then his teammates jumped in to lead Morgan Park to a 29-27 halftime lead.

“We’ve been off since (December) 30th, so we had to get the cobwebs out,” Garrett said. “I only shot seventy-five percent from the line at (the Proviso West tournament) and that is terrible.”

Robert Hurd led the Cavaliers with 17 but was held in check in the fourth quarter. He was joined in double figures by Dantrelle Freeman with 10 points and 13 rebounds and Mike Rollins with 10 points.

Dominique Lee had 12 points for the Mustangs.

Morgan Park will next face Simeon on Friday in a battle of Red-South unbeatens.

“We are a young team but we aren’t afraid of anyone,” Garrett said. “We are hoopers too.”

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