It may not exactly go into the record books as a work of art, but for the Morris girls basketball team it’s a win.
Indian Creek came to town to face the Redskins in a non-conference game and gave the hosts a run for their money. The Timberwolves trailed the entire game until 5:33 remained to be played in the fourth quarter before taking a brief one-point lead. The locals were able to stave off the charge, though, and responded by holding off their guests to win by a 48-44 score.
“The way we have been struggling, the team could have put their heads down and gave up but they didn’t,” Morris coach Luke Windy said of his team’s stay-with-it attitude with a little more than five minutes to play. “I think the next possession after they took the lead, we scored and got the lead right back. We executed down the stretch. After the timeout, Ashley hit a big three and I think that was the turning point in the game.”
Morris led 21-14 at half but Indian Creek managed to get the advantage down to 34-30 by the start of the fourth quarter.
“We struggled defensively tonight. Our rotations were slow and we could not matchup well,” Windy said. “Offensively we did a lot of things well. We got a lot of easy looks from three to five feet. But defensively they outrebounded us and we got outhustled at times in the second half.”
Indian Creek opened up the fourth quarter by getting consecutive baskets by Samantha Mosley and a trey by Ariel Russell to forge the brief 37-36 lead. The Redskins were 1-of-8 from the field at the start of the fourth with the lone hoop coming from Julie Jurasits. Meanwhile, Indian Creek was 3-for-5 in the same span when it grabbed the lead.
“We struggled defensively tonight,” Morris senior Katie Friend said. “They had a lot of rebounds tonight and that led to them getting a lot of second-chance points.”
With the game seemingly slipping away from the Redskins, Friend came up with a big basket to give them the lead right back the next trip down. After Windy called a timeout and after two missed free throws by IC, junior guard Ashley Bojovic then hit a three-point field goal. That made the score 41-37 and began a 7-3 run for Morris.
“As a team we knew that we had to keep our focus and to get the lead back,” Friend said. “We had to get good, smart shots on offense to get the lead back and to keep it.”
Friend said that the momentum swing at that point was key.
“That basket at that point was huge. It got us the momentum back,” she said. “Then we came back with the three out of the timeout and that was also huge and solitified that momentum. It also helped give us a push there at the end.”
IC did get the game to 47-44 inside of 30 seconds but a free throw by Friend capped all the scoring in the contest with :12 to play.
“It’s been tough for us. We had one senior home sick today and if you look out on the floor tonight, most of the game we had three freshmen out there,” Indian Creek coach Paul Muchmore said. “We battled tonight but they were the more physical team than we were. That little spurt they had there in the second quarter hurt us.”
Morris led 7-4 after the first quarter, but then went on a 7-0 run midway through the second quarter to secure the lead. The Redskins led 9-7 at the time when Val Pfaff got back to back baskets and then added a free throw in front of a trey by Maddy Feeney.
Friend ended the game with 12 points for Morris while Bojovic added 11.
Mosley had 14 points for the Timberwolves.
Indian Creek outrebounded Morris 44-37 on the night, but the T-Wolves also missed 12 free throws in the contest. Overall they were 5-of-17 from the charity stripe.
