By Darrel Wheeler
Staff Writer
A very large crowd of curious onlookers crammed Morse’s Tigers’ Den last Friday night to witness Hoover’s rematch against Morse’s league leading Tigers.
For the third consecutive year Morse and Hoover have split their two eastern league games. Morse won game one last January 61-55 and wanted to make it a double with another victory over rival Hoover. The payback-seeking Cardinals led by All-CIF senior superstar Damonte Holiday knew they would have to bring their A-plus game in order to slay the mighty Tigers.
“We kept our composure this time, we didn’t let all the hype get to us,” Damonte said.
In game one, Morse went on a scoring explosion in the first quarter and built up a very impressive lead.
“We got so far behind in that first game we could not catch up with them and we ran out of time, but this time we were not going to let them get that type of a lead,” Hoover coach Roosevelt Johnson said.
Last Friday night Morse did grab an early 5-0 lead and looked like deja vu until the Cardinals’ Shawn Pablo got hot from three-point range and the Tigers caught the turnover bug. Morse watched their five point lead slip away and turn into a 18-8 first quarter advantage for Hoover.
In the second quarter, Morse’s Tigers made their comeback move thanks to 6’9” freshman Brandon McCoy’s clutch free throw shooting and rebounding, and some shooting gone cold by Hoover’s sharpshooters. Bobby Sumler’s Mighty Tigers caught up with the fast-paced visitors and tied the game with a buzzer beater to end the first half.
In the next two quarters Hoover would gain the momentum; however, due to Morse’s superior rebounding they were able to keep Hoover’s Red–Birds from flying away with their momentum.
The game would eventually go down to the final seconds before victory could be claimed by Hoover.
In the second half, Morse’s turnovers continued to haunt them and Hoover’s Damonte Holiday’s hot shooting (16) including his crucial rebounding (12) gave the visiting Cardinals a hard fought win and some revenge.
“We had to win this game to help get our confidence back. When we have our confidence we can match up with anybody,” Damonte Holiday said.
Cardinal hot shots: Miles Nolan-Webb (14pts) Shawn Pablo (15pts) Damonte Holiday (16pts).
High-point Tigers: Jah Mitchell (10pts) Justin Davis (15pts) Brandon McCoy (16pts).
“We came out flat in the first half and in the second half we picked it up, but it was too late and we had way too many turnovers. Coach said we had to cut down on the turnovers and that’s what we didn’t do,” Morse’s Justin Davis said. “But I think we learned a lot from this game,” he added.
Hoover wins the rematch 55-52.
