Carver Military Academy

It was hard to call it a basketball game at first with all the fouls and turnovers; it was more like a border war between No. 4 Morgan Park and Carver.  But when both teams settled down, it turned into what most people thought it would be, a hard-fought Red-South match up between two of the conferences’ better teams.

Carver prevailed Thursday on the road 71-70 in over time and gained sole possession of third place behind Simeon and Bogan.

Morgan Park coach Nick Irvin decided not to play Wayne Blackshear and did not allow him to dress so he would not change his mind.

The Mustangs whittled away at Carver’s 14-point, third-quarter lead and eventually went ahead 60-59 on a jumper by Billy Garrett Jr. but the fourth quarter ended with a 62-62 tie as both teams headed for overtime.

Carver (19-6 6-3) used an 8-2 run at the beginning of the overtime period and took 70-64 lead on an alley-oop basket by DeShawn Delaney with 59 seconds remaining.

A free throw by Jerome Jacobs proved to be the winning basket despite two late three pointers, one from Garrett and the other from Terrence Quinn.

Delaney notched a triple-double with 22 points, 15 rebounds, and 12 blocks.  Michael Burgins scored 13 points, Jacobs had 10 and Tyler Anderson had 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Markee Williams led all scorers with 24 points, 10 rebounds, and six steals for Morgan Park.  Garrett followed with 16 and Quinn added 11 points.

“They showed a lot of guts playing like they did without Blackshear,” said Carver coach Jonnail Evans.  “But this is what you expect in the Red-South. (Delaney) played like the all-stater he is. When we needed it, he delivered on both ends of the court.”

“This was a tough game and you know Carver was going to leave it on the floor,” said Irvin.  “Nothing has changed since I played there.  I’m really proud of the way we fought back and played without Wayne.”