December 29, 2014
NMCC wins bracket, drops Championship Plus to Morgan Park at Carbondale
sports@standard-democrat.com CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The talent that spread throughout Morgan Park's lineup may have been deeper, but the New Madrid County Central Eagles didn't let that deter their fight. Down by as much as 20 at one point, the Eagles clawed back to give the two-time Illinois state champions a scare late in the fourth but eventually fell 85-75 to Chicago Morgan Park during the Championship Plus at the Carbondale Holiday Tournament at SIU Arena in Carbondale Sunday night...
By Chris Pobst - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- The talent that spread throughout Morgan Park's lineup may have been deeper, but the New Madrid County Central Eagles didn't let that deter their fight.
Down by as much as 20 at one point, the Eagles clawed back to give the two-time Illinois state champions a scare late in the fourth but eventually fell 85-75 to Chicago Morgan Park during the Championship Plus at the Carbondale Holiday Tournament at SIU Arena in Carbondale Sunday night.
"That's an awesome team," NMCC head coach Travis Day said about Morgan Park. "What I told my guys at the start was no matter what happens, compete, play hard and give me everything you've got. We did that for the majority of the game."
NMCC senior Willie Jimerson continued his dominating ways with a game-high 29 points and 17 rebounds against Morgan Park. That was after scoring a tournament-high 36 during an 84-77 win over Manassas to win the Class A bracket of the tournament, which features smaller sized schools and was NMCC's first bracket win since 2001.
Jimerson was named to the first team all-tournament team after averaging 30 points in four games. Sophomore Javarcus Word was a second team selection.
"That Jimerson, oh, he's tough. He a bad boy," Morgan Park head coach Nick Irvin said.
Morgan Park, who won the Class AA bracket of larger schools, was led by prized recruit Marcus LoVett.
LoVett, who holds offers from Kansas, Tennessee and DePaul, led the Mustangs with 28 points, 11 assists and was 50 percent (7 of 14) from the field including 4 of 8 from behind the arc. The senior was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player.
"We knew they were going to be a tough team," Jimerson said about LoVett and Morgan Park. "Our game plan was to keep them off the rebounds and contain them at the 3-point line. We really didn't do that in the first half."
A tightly contested first quarter that featured six ties gave way to a lopsided second in favor of Morgan Park.
The Mustangs shot 66 percent (18 of 27) in the first half and outscored NMCC 23-12 in the second period to take a 43-30 lead into halftime.
LoVett scored 11 of his team high in that quarter which featured back to back 3-pointers -- one of which he was fouled on an turned into a 4-point play -- to give his team a 34-20 lead. The Mustangs led by as many as 15 during the quarter.
With LoVett lighting it up from behind the arc, Charlie Moore, who finished with 20 points, added seven from inside the paint which is where Day felt the majority of Morgan Park's damage came from.
"They hit some big three's but at the same time we gave up some chippy's that we shouldn't have," Day said about the second quarter. "It was 2-1 in the paint. They were getting two shots to our one. That's where I think they pulled away from us. The three's that they hit there were hands in their face or from 20 feet. Those are going to happen. We have to get better at patrolling the paint and keeping teams out of it."
Morgan Park, who shot 60 percent from the floor as a team, pulled ahead by as many as 20 in the second half. A 3-pointer by LoVett put the Mustangs ahead 62-42 with 48 seconds left in the third quarter but NMCC would soon respond.
Clark answered with a 3-pointer of his own on the next possession and Jimerson made good on a conventional 3-point play to end the period on a 6-0 run and cut Morgan Park's lead to 62-48 entering the final frame.
The Eagles trimmed its deficit to as much as seven points five different times in the fourth but Morgan Park always seemed to have an answer while trying to run out the clock.
A 3-point play by Jimerson to cut the lead to 68-61 with 5:04 left was followed by another LoVett 3-pointer. Mikael Walker and Asten Newsom, who finished with 16 points and six rebounds, each hit buckets to trim the deficit to seven, but Moore went 4 of 4 from the free throw line to hold the lead with 1:27 remaining.
"They're a team that don't quit," Irvin said about NMCC's late comeback. "They're a team that plays to the end, that fights, scratch and do what they have to do to try and win the game. We looked at the score and just surrendered. (New Madrid) saw we were going through the motions and they poured it on."
By that time, the Mustangs' stall tactics had worked leaving NMCC with too much of a deficit and too little time to capture it.
"We fought," Jimerson said. "We're not going to give up no matter what."
Despite being the smaller team of the two, NMCC won the rebounding edge by a wide 40-23 margin.
"Coming into the game I thought we could have (the edge) but the first four possessions they got every rebound," Irvin said. "Teams like that you have to box out but they're so quick and athletic we had to finally put a body on them."
NMCC shot 28 of 63 (44 percent) from the floor including 3 of 11 from behind the arc.
"Anytime we go into a tournament all I ask for is we win more than we lose and lets leave with some type of hardware," Day said. "We did that today. We never gave up and kept fighting and next thing you know we're back in it. That's what you ask for at this time of the year."
NMCC 18 12 18 27 -- 75
Morgan Park 20 23 19 23 -- 85
NMCC (75) -- Willie Jimerson 29, TJ Clark 6, Javarcus Word 11, Drew Palmer 2, Asten Newsom 16, Mikael Walker 9, Gage Silman 1, Deon Jenkins 1. FG 28 FT 16-28 F 19. (3-pointers: Clark 2, Word 1. Fouled out: Word, Walker.)
MORGAN PARK (85) -- Marcus Lovett 28, Charlie Moore 20, Jarrin Randall 14, Melo Burrell 10, Alonzo Chatman 4, Jamal Burton 3, Sam Mack 4, Aaron Leftridge 2. FG 30 FT 18-22 F 22. (3-pointers: LoVett 4, Moore 1, Randall 2. Fouled out: none.)
__NMCC 84, Manassas 77__
NMCC (84) -- Willie Jimerson 36, TJ Clark 7, Javarcus Word 6, Drew Palmer 6, Asten Newsom 11, Mikeal Walker 10, Gage Silman 2, Deon Jenkins 4. FG 26 FT 29-36 F 17. (3-pointers: Jimerson 1, Drew Palmer 2. Fouled out: none.)
MANASSAS (77) -- Rameek Wooten 7, Samual Scott 2, Joshua Baldwin 1, Marcus Nesby 15, James Smith 6, Christopher Mitchell 13, Benjamin Perkins, Jr. 2, Joshua Conrad 23, Damon Fleming 8. FG 29 FT 11-18 F 26. (3-pointers: Wooten 1, Mitchell 3, Conrad 4. Fouled out: none.)
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