Sophomore forward Morez Johnson turned a close game in the fourth quarter into his own personal dunk contest Tuesday night.
Johnson, an Illinois recruit, threw down three of his five dunks in the final seven minutes to help host St. Rita pull away for a 60-49 win over Marist in Chicago.
“When I dunk, it gives us a lot of energy on the court and on the bench,” Johnson said. “I know if I go up for the layup and miss, I’m not going to get a foul. I’ve got to put it in.”
Johnson finished with 23 points and seven rebounds and Jaedin Reyna scored 16 points for St. Rita (7-3).
Achilles Anderson and Xavier Sulaiman led Marist (5-4) with 16 points apiece.
The 6-foot-9 Johnson has seen the spotlight on him increase since committing in November to Illinois, but he said he has been able to mostly block it out.
“I’m not really paying attention right now,” Johnson said. “I’m focused on high school and trying to win a state championship.
“Other teams can’t really focus on me because we have Jaedin who can shoot, Kaiden (Space) who can shoot, Melvin (Bell) and James (Brown). They can’t double anybody because we have too many people who can score.”
St. Rita coach Roshawn Russell has appreciated the way Johnson has dealt with the extra attention.
“I’m impressed with how he’s handling it,” Russell said. “We’re just trying to be here to help him through it. We’re really happy for him that Illini nation is clearly behind him, and we just want to help him any way we can.”
Marist, which trailed 37-20 at halftime, fought back within five points in the third quarter and trailed 45-38 entering the fourth.
Johnson opened the scoring in the fourth with a dunk off a baseline inbound pass. He then stepped back and hit a 3-pointer.
He followed that up with an inside basket and two more dunks. He scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to put the game away.
“We knew he had a huge size advantage,” Russell said. “Their zone slowed us down a little bit, but we knew once we got going our guys could dominate.”
Reyna, who missed the Mustangs’ 56-48 loss Saturday to Carmel due to an illness, scored 12 points in the first half to spark St. Rita. He hit three 3-pointers.
“I was excited to be back,” Reyna said. “(Monday), I shot around a little bit just to get back in the groove and (Tuesday), I felt really good.”
Marist led 17-16 after one quarter, but St. Rita outscored the RedHawks 21-3 in the second quarter. The Mustangs’ swarming defense took over and created easy baskets on the other end.
“I think our defense starts everything,” Reyna said. “We have Melvin at the top with his long arms, and he’s a force up there. Me and Kaiden are scrappy. We’re going to get some traps. Then we have our bigs, and it’s hard to score on them.”
Brown added nine points for the Mustangs, while Bell finished with seven points and nine rebounds.
Mason Ross scored eight points for Marist, which more than held its own aside from the second quarter.
“Our zone was hurting them a little bit,” Marist first-year coach Brian Hynes said. “We thought about going man-to-man, but they’re just too athletic for us, so we stayed in the zone and it worked. We just didn’t score in the second quarter.
“Overall, for us, it’s growth. It’s a young team, a new coach. I think it’s a good sign for us to play hard and compete.”
Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
