Following a thrilling end to the girls portion of Saturday’s boys/girls varsity double-header against La Salle-Peru, the Morris Redskins were able to complete the sweep with a 56-49 win in the boys game. The Redskins improved to 11-7 with the victory behind 23 points from senior forward Ben Ortiz and 16 points from senior guard Jason Matteson.

However, the Redskins got out to a painfully sluggish start against Northern Illinois Big 12 crossover rival L-P. Morris missed its first five shots from beyond the arc and at one point fell behind 17-6 before a three by sophomore Austin Patterson late in the first quarter would cut the lead to 17-9 to end of the period.

In the second quarter, with the Redskins struggling to find an identity offensively, Matteson essentially took over. “Boomer” scored all 16 of his points in the second and third quarters, with seven coming in the second and nine coming in the third, respectively. In fact, he scored the final seven points for Morris of the half and helped cut the L-P lead to 24-22.