Dec 19, 2024
Fort Frye’s Treven Nicholson (32) and Grady Hesson guard Morgan’s Brylee Shannon during Wednesday’s game in Beverly. (Photo by Mike Morrison)
BEVERLY – First-year Morgan Raider boys basketball coach Joe Marcinko picked up his first win Tuesday evening in thrilling fashion with a 58-57, overtime win over Philo.
Twenty-four hours later the Raiders were in another thriller, and once again they came out on top as they held off a furious charge by the Fort Frye Cadets to pick up a 45-43 win Wednesday night at Fort Frye High School.
The Raiders held a double-digit lead in the second half only to watch the Cadets battle all the way back and actually jump in front late in the third quarter.
“Our kids played with grit, toughness and the willingness not to quit,” said Marcinko. “These guys do it everyday in practice and now they are starting to see it pay off in games.”
Morgan led by a pair at the end of the first quarter and then out-pointed the Cadets 11-3 in the second quarter to take a 25-15 lead into the intermission.
Limiting any team to 15 points in a half is quite an achievement and Marcinko was quite pleased with his teams defensive effort in the opening half.
“I thought our guys played tough and played hard defensively against a Fort Frye team that has some shooters,” said Marcinko. “Playing back-to-back games like that takes a toll but these guys stepped up and really played well defensively especially in the first half.”
The Cadets quickly began to chip away at the lead in the third quarter as Kainan Bradford scored the first two point of the second half but the Raiders answered with a Jordan Harlow two-pointer to push their lead back to 10.
A pair of free throws by Cadet senior Clayton Miller trimmed the margin to eight but both teams went cold as they went three full minutes without putting the ball in the hoop.
Fort Frye broke the streak when Grady Hesson drew a foul and knocked down a pair of free throws to cut the lead to six with 3:16 to play in the third.
Cadet head coach Eric Henniger elected to bring former starter Chatam Courson off of the bench and that move paid huge dividends in the third quarter.
Courson knocked down a triple to cut the lead to three and on the Cadets next possession connected on a floater in the paint to trim the lead to a single point.
After a Cadet stop on defense, Courson was at it again as his runner for two with less than two minutes to play in the quarter gave the Cadets the lead.
“We know he (Courson) is capable of scoring like that and we are trying to get that out of him now,” said Henniger. “We brought him off of the bench to try and get him into the flow and he really played well in the second half.”
Morgan responded in a big way as Luke Coleman completed an old-fashioned three-point play to put the Raiders back in front.
After a Courson free throw the Raiders ended the third quarter with a huge momentum burst when Cole McGill connected on a turn-around 12-foot jumper to give the visitors a 32-29 lead heading to the final period.
The Raiders would stretch the lead to seven early in the final quarter but the Cadets simply would not go away.
Another triple by Courson cut the lead to four with 3:30 to play in the game.
The Fort got two points closer as senior Coen Fouss assisted Grady Hesson on a two-pointer to trim the lead to two.
Morgan got a pair of baskets in succession from Brylee Shannon to extend their lead back to six with less than two minutes to go.
The Raiders converted just 4-of-15 free throws in the game and many of those misses down the stretch allowed the Cadets to hang around.
The Cadets used a very athletic play by Fouss to cut the lead to a single point.
Clayton Miller’s three-ball was off of the mark but Fouss made a great save of the ball before it went out of bounds and somehow managed to flip the ball back out to Miller who drained a triple to cut the lead to one with just 12 seconds remaining in the game.
Fouss came up with a huge defensive play as he tipped the inbound pass off of a Morgan player to give the Cadets the ball on their end of the court with 11.3 seconds to play.
Fort Frye got the ball inside to Bradford but his shot was off the mark with Cole McGill pulling down the rebound with just three and a half seconds remaining in the game.
McGill made good on the first free throw but missed the second giving the Cadets possession of the ball with 3.5 seconds to play.
The Cadets tried to pass the ball the length of court but that attempt was intercepted by Myers to spoil their bid for a miracle finish.
“Tavian (Myers) made some big plays last night to help us win that game and turns around and does it again tonight with that steal at the end,” said Marcinko. “His numbers may not be all that great but he has really picked it up and was a big part in us getting these wins.”
McGill led the way for the winners with 12 points while Coleman added 10.
Shannon finished with eight points and a team high seven boards.
Courson scored all 13 of his points in the second half to lead the way for the Cadets while Miller finished with eight.
Fouss added seven points, seven assists and five rebounds.
The Cadets slipped to 1-4 with the loss with a showdown with Southern slated for Saturday morning at 10 a.m. at Warren High School.
“That first half really killed us…. You are not going to score 15 points in a half and win very many games,” said Henniger. “Our defense was pretty good, we have just got to figure out a way to get the ball in the hole.”
Morgan improved to 2-3 with the win and will travel to John Glenn on Saturday.
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