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12/29/05

Buford had 22 points in the loss......

Morgan’s 33 points, 18 boards lead the way for Bulldogs
Thursday, December 29, 2005 By Chris Beaven Repository sports writer

Repository Ray Stewart Gimme that - McKinley senior Ricky Jackson tries to grab a rebound from Toledo Libbey sophomore Julius Wells during Wednesday’s game at Memorial Field House. The Bulldogs won, 81-54, to advance to tonight’s championship game of their McKinley Classic.



McKinley 81, Toledo Libbey 54

CANTON - Not every missed shot ended up in Raymar Morgan’s large hands Wednesday night at Memorial Field House.

It just seemed that way as the 6-foot-8 McKinley senior went about the routine business of putting together another big night.

Morgan scored his career high for the third straight game — and equaled his best rebounding performance — in leading the Bulldogs to an 81-54 win over Toledo Libbey in the McKinley Classic.

The win, before an estimated 2,800 fans, advances McKinley (6-1) to tonight’s championship game against Columbus Brookhaven (6-0).

Tipoff is 8 p.m. Brookhaven won Wednesday’s first game against Detroit Redford on a dunk at the buzzer by Jeff Cumberland.

No dramatics were needed in the second game. Morgan made sure of that with 33 points and 18 rebounds.

“That’s a horse inside,” Libbey head coach Leroy Bates said. “We’ve got some post guys, but not post guys like him. I’m sure there’s very few people in the country like him. You’ve just got to give credit to a great player.”

Morgan, a Michigan State recruit, personally outrebounded Libbey during the first half, 12-10. Five times he scored on putbacks in the opening half, including four in the first quarter to key a 17-2 run.

“It doesn’t really matter how I score,” Morgan said. “I do like to work for points, but I’ll score however my team needs me to score.”

This was Morgan’s third straight game of 30 or more points. McKinley head coach Dave Hoover can’t recall a player of his doing that before. Morgan had equaled his career high with 30 last week against GlenOak before topping it a few days later with 32 at Boardman.

Morgan said he has not thought about his scoring tear.

“I just come out to play, and my team supports me,” he said. “I try to come out aggressive every night.”

He also has the mindset that every rebound will end up in his hands.
“I know it’s not possible,” Morgan said. “But I try to think like that every play.”

Morgan had a double-double within the first minute of the second quarter, scoring 18 of McKinley’s first 23 points.

“He just created some baskets for himself,” Hoover said. “He got a lot of baskets off offensive rebounds, and he found ways to score.”

That effort was needed with the Bulldogs struggling at the start. They trailed 6-2 three minutes into the game, missing their first five shots to go along with three turnovers.

McKinley revved things up, though, using its 17-2 run to take a 19-8 lead. The Bulldogs led by as many as 23 in the second quarter as Morgan showed he could do more than rebound. After coming up with one of his four steals, Morgan led a fastbreak and tossed an alley-oop pass to Todd Brown. The 6-5 senior responded with an emphatic two-handed slam as part of his 10 points.

Morgan also had a couple of first-half dunks, one following a missed shot and the other after a nice pass from Kyrk Freeman.

Freeman joined Harriel Moore and David White in giving McKinley strong play off the bench. They combined for 18 points, 12 rebounds and three steals.
“They gave us quality minutes that helped change the tempo of the game for us,” Hoover said. “Not a lot of what they did will show up on stat sheet. But they tipped balls, they got some rebounds and they made a lot of hustle plays.”

A steal by Moore early in the fourth quarter helped a 17-4 run that put the game away. Moore stripped a ball in the paint and got it ahead to Morgan. He scored, was fouled and hit the ensuing free throw.

“That really got us going,” Morgan said of Moore’s steal.

Libbey (3-4) had closed to within 55-42 before the run.

“They had a little momentum,” Morgan said. “But I thought we kept our heads well.”

The Bulldogs, ranked 11th nationally, impressed Bates.

“They have the confidence and the experience,” the Libbey coach said. “And when you have great confidence, great experience and a great coach like Hoover, good things are going to happen for you.”
chris.beaven@cantonrep.com