Going into the season neither Morgan Park nor Marshall were predicted to make it to the championship game. Marshall was overlooked mainly because last year’s star, Darius Smith graduated, and Morgan Park was doubted because of their youth in the bac
Going into the season neither Morgan Park nor Marshall were predicted to make it to the championship game. Marshall was overlooked mainly because last year’s star, Darius Smith graduated, and Morgan Park was doubted because of their youth in the backcourt and reliance on star junior forward Wayne Blackshear. Both teams proved the naysayers wrong, meeting in the city championship game where the Mustangs defeated the Commandos 61-60 at the UIC Pavilion and they put on a tremendous championship basketball game that would be decided by a difficult nine-foot bank shot by Blackshear with time running out. Blackshear (21 points) had already wowed the crowd with several high-flying slam dunks, and when the opportunity to carry his team to victory using his jump shot arose, he was ready. “I put it upon myself to take big shots, that’s what I live for,” Blackshear said. “I hate to lose and when I got the ball in my hands I knew I was going to make that shot.” And the shot shot he made from inside the free throw line with defenders hanging all over him couldn’t have been more difficult. The ball was banked in from an unusual angle in front of the hoop, but Blackshear had confidence because he had tried the shot before in practice. “We practice that shot a lot. I always do bank shots from each side of the rim and then I do bank shots from the front of the rim. So when I drove in the game I felt comfortable doing it again – and luckily I did it soft enough to go in,” Blackshear said. The victory punctuated a determined post-season run for the Mustangs, who won the final three playoff games by a tenuous total of just four points. Freshman guards Markee Williams and Billy Garrett Jr. also played well in the championship game and the entire city playoffs. Williams hit the winning free throws in the quarterfinals and semifinals and Garrett played solid throughout, netting 12 points in the title game. Both shrug off the notion that their youth plays a factor in how well they play, especially in big games. “I didn’t feel pressure,” Garrett said. “We’ve played in big games before and did well. Just because it was the city championship I didn’t view the game any differently than any other game we played.” Williams also felt well prepared to come through when he stepped to the foul line with the game’s outcome on the line. “There wasn’t any pressure because me and Nick (Coach Irvin) had worked on free throws an extra 30 minutes after practice the night before the game. In the game it was just go to the line an do what you were doing last night,” Williams said. Early in the title game, however, it was forward Jerome Brown who led the Mustang charge. The 6-foot-5 junior hit six three-pointers, scoring 18 points in the first half. Brown knows he has a good shooting touch, but he was still a bit awed at his own production in the biggest game of his basketball career. “The first shot went in and they kept finding me and my shot kept going in,” said Brown. “I just kept feeling it. Sometimes the shot felt like it was going to be short but they went in, so it was like I was in a zone.” Head Coach Nick Irvin was also glad to see Brown step up and hit some big shots for the Mustangs. “He carried us in the first half. Without those 18 points I don’t know how many points we would have been down by. We knew what he could do and he had some games like that earlier in the season. It’s just a shock to a lot of people because he doesn’t shoot that much,” Irvin said. The city championship is now the sole possession of Morgan Park, but it didn’t come easily and the Mustangs give a lot of credit to Marshall for taking them to the limit. “They go hard,” said Garrett about the relentless Commandos. “They play hard and they’re not going to quit. They kept coming back at us, they played hard and they’re a good team.” “Marshall is tough,” added Irvin. “They and Hyde Park will fight you to the end. They’ll lay it on the line and they have phenomenal coaches too.” Winning the Chicago Public League title is a memorable accomplishment for any head coach, but it’s especially sweet for Irvin because it’s only his second season as a coach at the high school level. “It feels so good right now,” said Irvin. “I appreciate it because a lot of coaches don’t ever accomplish this.”
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