In December, the idea that Morgan Park may need another scorer would have seemed absurd. The area’s best teams were taking turns at failing to stop the Mustangs.
They averaged 77 points en route to the Proviso West tournament title, and even more impressibly, beat Bogan 79-58 on the road without much of a contribution from Charlie Moore.
Two and a half months later, the No. 2 Mustangs may well be on the collision course with Belleville Althoff in the Class 3A championship game that many anticipated.
They’re still putting up big numbers, after all, though an uncomfortably disproportionate amount of them — particularly in the second halves of close games — have been coming from Moore.
At the press conference after Moore bailed Morgan Park out of its final regular-season game at the City-Suburban Showdown — an 88-79 overtime victory over Riverside Brookfield in which Moore scored 15 straight Morgan Park points during one stretch of the fourth quarter and OT — coach Nick Irvin asked sophomore Ayo Dosunmu to become the secondary scorer his team lacked down the stretch.
“We need him to be aggressive to win a state championship,” Irvin said, with Dosunmu seated next to him. “He’s got star qualities. I think he needs to start being that guy. He’s a junior now, he’s not a sophomore any more.
“Charlie needs help and I think he is the guy to do it.”
Hilltoppers, Warriors have tough regionals: Glenbard West (23-3) and Deerfield (25-3) were the surprise stories of the season.
Both are entering the postseason on a high note following crossover championship victories Wednesday night, and both may have to avenge one of their three losses in order to advance out of regionals.
The winner of its first 15 games this season, Glenbard West will have to open the postseason against the team that snapped that streak if Proviso West (10-13) beats West Aurora in the opening game of the Class 4A Hinsdale Central Regional on Monday.
The winner will play Glenbard West, the No. 2 seed in the East Aurora Sectional, on Tuesday. Proviso West beat Glenbard West 56-50 on Jan. 22. Glenbard won the rematch 62-52 on Feb. 19. Wheaton North, another team to defeat the Hilltoppers this season, also is in the Hinsdale Central Regional.
Coming off its 60-59 upset of Evanston on Wednesday, Deerfield, seeded second behind Evanston in the Glenbrook South Sectional, is set up to meet Lake Forest in the Glenbrook North Regional final.
Lake Forest (17-9) beat Deerfield 44-38 on Dec. 12.
Wildkits should be wary of Warren: Evanston was the easy choice as the top seed in the Class 4A Glenbrook South Sectional when the voting concluded last Friday.
The Wildkits (21-5) were riding a 13-game winning streak, but they’re 0-3 since and may have a tough game right off the bat in the postseason.
Warren (12-15) doesn’t have one of its more talented teams, but the Blue Devils are a particularly dangerous No. 13 seed in their own gym.
If it beats 17th-seeded Glenbrook South (11-15) on Monday night, Warren will host Evanston on Tuesday night.
Warren got off to a 2-8 start and got hot mid-season, beating No. 15 Stevenson on the road, Zion-Benton and Glenbard East during a six-game winning streak in January.
Local 2A sectional strong: Two of the area’s most exciting young players will go at it on Wednesday night when Orr and 6-foot-4 sophomore Raekwon Drake meet DePaul Prep and 6-4 freshman Perry Cowan in the Class 2A DePaul Prep Sectional semifinals.
A season after having to forfeit all of its victories for use of ineligible players, Orr (18-3) is ranked No. 1 in 2A by the Associated Press.
The Spartans find themselves in perhaps the state’s toughest 2A sectional, with defending state champion Uplift (18-7) looming in the sectional final.
Mike Helfgot is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
