Wauwatosa West boys eliminated by red-hot Morse-Marshall

Wauwatosa West ran into a red-hot Milwaukee Morse-Marshall team Friday night, and the boys saw its season come to an end with an 84-70 loss in a game that wasn't really that close.

Alou Dillon scored 25 points but fell short of setting a school record for points in a season (459), held by Greg Calvin in 1992-93. When he hit a jump shot with 12 minutes, 54 seconds left in the first half, he gave Tosa West its only lead of the night at 13-12.

Donvean Sanders hit a 3-pointer, Remelle Wright hit a jumper and Tommie Harbin dunked after stealing the ball for a 19-13 lead. West's Javaree Jackson hit a 3 to cut it to 21-18 with 9:01 left, Harbin tipped in a rebound and hit a free throw, and West's Marquiss Childs hit two free throws to cut the lead to 24-20 at 7:05.

10-0 run hurt

But then the Eagles soared and went on a 10-0 run, and realistically, that was the game.

Harbin hit a free throw, and Kordell Ellis put in a rebound and then a layup. Harbin hit two free throws, and Sanders made a 3 for a 34-20 lead. The teams exchanged baskets the rest of the half as West trailed 44-30.

The Eagles had a lead of 21 points (62-41) on Harbin's drive with 9:50 left to play.

West did cut the lead to 80-68 with 1:14 left on a drive by Childs, but Donovan Sanders hit two free throws, and twin brother Donvean Sanders, all 5-10 of him, brought the crowd to its feet with a steal and slam dunk.

West's Trevor Powell's rebound basket closed out the scoring with 16 seconds left.

Donvean Sanders and Wright each had 18 points, and Harbin added 16, while the only Trojan in double figures besides Dillon was Rayvon Bartlett, Jr. with 11.

Passing, defense key

Morse-Marshall coach Warren McCloud was happy with his team's play.

"The ball moved around well tonight," he said. "I was happy with our senior leaders. They've been through a lot. They don't want to go home; they don't want to be done yet."

The Eagles dominated the boards against a strong-rebounding West team.

"We've had those troubles the whole year," McCloud said, "offensively, defensively, but we worked hard on rebounding this week, boxing out."

West coach Chad Stelse never saw this coming.

"We know they can score," he said. "But I have to give them credit. They were quicker to lose balls; we had trouble with whatever defense we were in. Containing the perimeter, they got to the hoop whenever they wanted to.

"We wanted them to shoot the 3, which they did at the very beginning of the game, but that gave them confidence. Then they started to attack, and we didn't force their weak hand, and they went to the hoop, and we had trouble stopping them."

Rebound problems

Stelse also talked about losing the rebound battle.

"We only lost the rebound battle three games going into tonight," he said. "We didn't do a good job of getting the body in there, and they are so athletic. They beat us to those loose-ball rebounds plain and simple. We missed some box-outs that we usually don't.

"But at the same time, we were playing a good team, and they got to those balls and secured the rebounds."

Despite the loss, Stelse credited his team for their effort.

"I'm proud of our team," he said. "For a little bit there, we were trying to give the guys hopes. We put them on the line, and they did miss the free throws. But we didn't capitalize enough offensively, and eventually we ran out of time."

Stelse felt bad that he didn't give the seniors (Jake Hronek, John Dettlaff, Keegan Schrems, Trevor Powell) much playing time in their final game.

West finished with an overall 12-11 record.