Boys Basketball: Rocco Belcaster, Morton snap Waukegan’s streak

Updated: February 19, 2012 7:00PM

Morton went on an 11-0 run that wrapped around the third-quarter break to take command, then survived a late rally to beat Waukegan 77-73 on Sunday in Game 2 of the Conference Challenge Classic at Gordon Tech.

Rocco Belcaster, a 6-8 senior, scored a team-high 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in his fourth game back after missing seven games with a broken hand.

The Mustangs (12-11) lost five straight without Belcaster and now has won three straight with him.

After Morton went up 67-55 with 3:30 to play, the Bulldogs (15-9) rallied to within 71-67 with 1:26 left. The lead was back up to seven at 77-70 with 26 seconds left, which enabled the Mustangs to survive a three-pointer by Quinton Davis with 22 seconds left and a missed layup by Devonte Taylor with seven seconds left.

Morton had a 28-9 rebounding edge in the second half, fueled by Belcaster.

“It feels good to get a win against a good team,” Belcaster said. “We knew they were really fast. Our best chance ws going to be to attack them and use our height advantage to beat them on the boards.

“We’ve been on a little winning streak. We’re playing well right now.”

Morton coach Tony Martinucci is glad to have his big guy back.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries,” Martinucci said, “but we’ve been playing everyone tough. We’re finally closing out teams; we’re playing well at the right time.”

For the game, Waukegan was 22-for-60 shooting, including 4-for-20 from behind the arc. Morton was 28-for-61. Waukegan senior Akeem Springs had 28 points and nine rebounds. Taylor added 22 points and Davis 15.

“I’m proud of our effort. Our execution was not what it needed to be at times,” said Bulldogs coach Ron Ashlaw, whose team had won nine straight.

“I would have liked to seen them play more man-to-man. Sometimes when we see zone, our guys think it’s a license to shoot from the perimeter. We want our guys to be aggressive and attack the rim with a good power move.”

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