To view game action photos, visit the photo gallery and click on the following link: http://photos.suburbanonesports.com/
By Nate Oxman
Aaron Morgan had his chest on his man, used his always-active hands to swat the ball away, and then dove on the floor in pursuit of the ensuing loose ball.
Morgan did all that despite the fact that less than a minute earlier he picked up his fourth personal foul with five minutes, 23 seconds to play in Tuesday’s tumultuous tilt between host Council Rock North and rival Council Rock South.
It was risky business for the sophomore point guard as his Indians’ squad was looking to stretch its 47-41 advantage, but he was simply playing the only way he knows how—all out.
That’s how Morgan – and every Indian who took the floor – played right from the opening tip on Tuesday as he gouged the Golden Hawks’ matchup zone defense for three first-quarter three-pointers en route to a game-high 19 points in a 62-50 North win.
“It was good,” said Morgan of the win. “There’s always a lot of energy in this game and I think we tried to feed off of that. We tried to control the tempo and everyone played well.”
Equally as important as Morgan’s early triples - which along with another by sophomore forward Arron Goodman (10 points) allowed North to take a 16-9 lead after one quarter - were his free throws down the stretch.
Aided by the opportunities for North coach Derek Wright to make continued defensive substitutions for Morgan with speedy sophomore guard Matt McCloskey and then to re-insert his point guard back into the game for offensive possessions, Morgan had the ball in his hands throughout the final five minutes.
And with South forced to extend its defense in an attempt to create steals and cause turnovers, the Indians ended up fouling Morgan and putting him on the free-throw line, where he coolly canned 5-of-7 in the final 4:38 to stretch the North lead into double digits and ultimately help seal the win.
“He was great tonight,” said Wright of Morgan. “He was the difference. When you have a point guard who can control the tempo, which he did, he got it fast-paced which is the pace we wanted, and was able to control it at the end when we had to slow it down.
”He defended well. He made shots early. He got into the paint throughout the game. He knocked down some free throws. It makes the game a lot easier for your team when your point guard can do that.”
When Morgan wasn’t lighting it up from the three-point and foul lines, he was penetrating into the lane and looking for open teammates. The main beneficiary was junior forward John Raymon.
After a Morgan steal led to a short jumper by Raymon to give North its largest lead of the night at 25-15 with 4:25 to play in the first half, South responded with an 11-4 run that included one three-point bucket each from Pat Silverthorn, Cody Nowlin, and Jake Clopton.
“You have to give them credit,” said Wright. “Every time we had a lapse defensively in terms of our scouting report and what we wanted to do, they took advantage of it. They made some big shots in the first half, but overall we didn’t let down defensively for long stretches.”
South was able to trim its deficit to 29-26 with 1:12 left before Morgan split the two defenders at the top of the South zone and then whipped a no-look, underhand pass to Raymon, who finished strong, was fouled, and converted the three-point play.
The 6-foot-5 Raymon scored 10 of his 13 points in the second quarter as North took a 34-26 lead into the break.
The lead quickly reached 12 early in the third before another South spurt, this time an 11-3 rally that included another three from both Nowlin (14 points) and Silverthorn (12 points on four three’s), brought the Hawks within five at 44-39 entering the final frame.
That’s when South - plagued by the relentless work on both the offensive and defensive boards by all five of the Indians on the floor throughout the contest - could chip away no longer.
Add in the failure to convert key free throws – South was 5-for-13 from the line on the night including 2-for-7 in the fourth quarter – and the Hawks’ wings were clipped.
Morgan’s performance at the free-throw line on the other hand typified the stellar shooting of the entire North team in the win as the Indians combined to knock down 23-of-27 free-throws.
“I think the two things that North did really well tonight was rebounding the basketball and making free throws,” said South coach John Easterly. “They beat us on the boards and they made free throws. I think they were 23-for-27 and we were 5-for-13. That was a huge factor in the game.”
The win helped the Indians erase the pain of last Friday’s 51-42 upset-loss to Abington, one that snapped the team’s six-game winning streak.
“That was a heartbreaker,” said Morgan. “We couldn’t make a shot from the outside and it didn’t turn out too well. But we came back tonight, played as hard as we could, and came out with the win.”
It also upped North’s record to 4-3 in SOL National Conference play and 8-4 overall.
South fell to 2-5 in SOL National play and 5-7 overall.
Council Rock South (50)— Cody Nowlin 6 0-0 14; Pat Silverthorn 4 0-0 12; Justin Thomas 4 1-5 9; P.J. Gallo 0 3-5 3; Jake Clopton 5 0-1 11; Terrence McGovern 0 0-0 0; Mike Dipaolo 0 1-2 1; Chris Giampietro 0 0-0 0; Justin Lesher 0 0-0 0; Dave Poehlman 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 5-13 50.
Council Rock North (62)—Aaron Morgan 5 6-9 19; John Raymon 5 2-3 13; Arron Goodman 3 3-3 10; Charlie Anastasi 1 6-6 8; Andrew Stress 2 4-4 8; Tim Filer 0 0-0 0; Ty Bostain 1 0-0 2; Matt McCloskey 0 2-2 2; Liam Kane 0 0-0 0; Nick Donofy 0 0-0 0; Hunter Stevens 0 0-0 0; Jordan Chernin 0 0-0 0. Totals 17 23-27 62.
Three-point goals: Silverthorn 4, Nowlin 2, Clopton; Morgan 3, Raymon, Goodman
Council Rock South 9 17 13 11—50
Council Rock North 16 18 10 18—62
- Log in to post comments
0
