Morgan Park scrapes past upset-minded Vocational

It was supposed to be a walk through the park for Morgan Park against Vocational, but instead it nearly turned into the nightmare on 103rd Street as the Mustangs were lucky to escape with a 58-54 victory Tuesday in the Class 3A sectional semifinal at Julian.

In two previous games this season in Red-South conference play, Morgan Park (20-6) won by a combined 97 points, 50 points in the first game and 47 in the second matchup. But Tuesday was a different story.

Morgan Park held a 35-28 half-time lead but it was trimmed to 45-43 by the end of the third quarter. Vocational (16-12) tied the score at 54-54 with 1:11 remaining in the game. A basket and free throw by Marcus Lovett and a free throw by Charlie Moore allowed Morgan Park to close things out. A Vocational turnover with 13 seconds left and a missed front end of a one-and-one with six seconds left on the clock sealed the Cavaliers’ fate.

Lovett and Moore scored all but one of Morgan Park’s points in the fourth quarter.

Lovett led three Mustangs in double figures with 20 points. Moore finished with 19 and Alonzo Chapman scored 10.

The Cavaliers were led by Jakobe Barker who had a game high 22 points. Sidney Mason had 14 and Keeshawn Palmer had 10.

Morgan Park coach Nick Irvin said he was not surprised by Vocational’s effort.

“Coach (Chris) Pickett does an excellent job with the talent that he has,” said Irvin. “In the previous two games we just caught them when they were a little banged up. Trying to beat any team three times is a tough task and yes, the kids did over look them a little.”

Lovett and Moore both admitted it was not a good first half for them.

“We were sluggish in the first half, but we were able to change things in the second half,” said Lovett.

“Coach was not too happy with the way we played. We allowed them to stay in the game and we almost paid for it,” said Moore.

Pickett said the loss was especially tough knowing it was a game they could have won.

“After that second lost we were definitely pointing toward this game,” said Pickett. “Playing against a well-coached quality team like Morgan Park you have to take advantage of every opportunity that you get and we let some golden opportunities slip away. It could have been a different story.”