La Salle-Peru boys cruise past Morris

MORRIS – Getting off to a good start is something every team wants to do. The La Salle-Peru boys basketball team did that to near perfection Friday night in a 67-52 Interstate 8 Conference win over Morris.

The Cavaliers were dominant on both ends of the floor throughout, but it was the first quarter that paved the way. L-P (10-13, 4-1) jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game on a 3-pointer by Mikey Hartman, who had a team-high 18 points, and a pair of baskets by Marion Persich, who finished with 13.

After Morris' Jack Wheeler (18 points) got his team on the board with a 3-pointer, L-P’s Nick Olivero (17 points) hit back-to-back 3s. Olivero added a free throw and a basket before the quarter was over to help his team to a 20-6 lead.

“We were mentally and physically prepared for tonight,” Olivero said. “We were pretty hyped up because it was a conference game, and we were locked in and focused.

“We moved the ball well and my teammates found me when I was open. We rebounded well, especially on the offensive boards, and that gave us some easy baskets, too. Defensively, we knew they had some scorers, so the coaches prepared us well for that.”

The Cavaliers extended their lead to 36-17 at halftime and 56-30 at the end of the third quarter. Persich had five points in the second quarter, while Hartman scored seven in the third before adding eight in the fourth. Olivero had 11 points at halftime, four in the second quarter and two in the fourth before heading to the bench with L-P securely in the lead.

“We’ve had a lot of trouble closing games this year,” L-P coach John Senica said. “We have a couple of losses by one point, two by three and two by five, so we haven’t been getting blown out.

“Ever since the new year started, I have been proud of the kids for the way they have played four full quarters like we did tonight. This is a good Morris team and [Morris coach Joe Blumberg] does a good job of preparing them. We were able to make shots when we needed to, and we crashed the boards well.”

Jack Wheeler led Morris (7-14, 1-5) with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Brett Bounds added 11.

Before the game, the Morris Community High School Education Foundation inducted six new members to its Hall of Distinction – Kim DesLauriers, Col. William Fruland, James Feeney, Delight Belt, Ed Spiezio and Scott Spiezio.

“I am disappointed and embarrassed with how we played tonight,” Blumberg said. “The Education Foundation and our administration did a great job of putting together a great program tonight, we had a great crowd, and we just didn’t come out with any energy.

“We came out flat Wednesday (a 67-41 loss to Sycamore), and for two days we talked to the guys about coming out with energy. We wanted to do a better job of rebounding, setting screens, playing defense, all of the things that take effort, and we didn’t do any of those things.”

In the girls game that preceded the boys, Morris (18-3, 5-2) was in control the whole way of their 50-38 win, leading 14-6 at the end of the first quarter, 25-11 at halftime and 37-22 at the end of the third.

Layken Callahan scored a team-high 19 points, while Landrie Callahan had 18 points, 12 rebounds and four blocked shots. Lily Hansen chipped in eight points and nine rebounds.

Landrie Callahan scored eight points in the first quarter to help Morris to a 14-4 lead before L-P’s Brianna Ruppert (10 points) made a pair of free throws. The Cavs' Kelsey Frederick scored five of her 10 points in the second quarter, while Layken Callahan had seven in the period.

L-P cut the lead to 30-20 with 3:02 left in the third quarter, but Morris got four points from Hansen to help outscore L-P 7-2 the rest of the way. Morris built a 47-31 lead before pulling its starters in the fourth. Ashley Kawiecki came off the bench for L-P to score seven points in the final few minutes.

“This wasn’t a real pretty game,” Morris coach Mike Lutz said. “We had too many turnovers, and that has to stop. We came out a little flat, and our decision-making wasn’t the best.

“Landrie and Layken gave us some good scoring, and the defense played well. Tessa Shannon and Lily Hansen got their hands on a lot of passes, and we blocked out well going after rebounds. The girls played hard, but we need to clean up our turnovers.”