Downers South Uses Big Rally to Beat Morton

Coming back from a double-digit deficit is never easy, but it is always possible when you have players like Jerron Wilbut and Jamall Millison on your team.

Downers Grove South trailed by 13 on the road against previously unbeaten Morton Friday night, yet used a blizzard of three-pointers to come roaring back for a 62-57 West Suburban Conference Gold Division victory in Cicero.

The Mustangs (6-1, 2-0) sank nine of 17 three-point tries in the second half and scored the final nine points of the game to stun Morton (4-1, 1-1).

Wilbut, who scored 18 of his 20 points after intermission, led the way by draining four three-pointers, while Millison and Jordan Cannon had two each in the second half and sophomore point guard Danny Spinuzza had one.

“There’s always doubts but you’ve just got to keep fighting,” Wilbut said. “You’ve got to keep playing hard.

“We were down. We had to do something about it, so I got a couple good looks for threes to get us kind of back in the mix and the bench got fired up. The team got fired up.”

Morton led 35-22 when Wilbut, who also had six rebounds, five steals and three assists, got things started with a three-pointer at the 4:18 mark of the third quarter. The first five baskets scored by the Mustangs in the quarter were from beyond the stripe and the visitors pulled within 39-38 on a layup by Cannon with 1:46 left.

“I think it’s a chain reaction,” Wilbut said. “Once someone is going well, everyone kind of contributes. So once you get everyone going it’s kind of hard to stop us.”

Downers South had a hard time stopping Morton’s Rocco Belcaster and Waller Perez, who combined to score their team’s first eight points as the hosts burst out to a 10-2 lead. Downers South Coach Jay Baum then called a timeout and inserted Wilbut, who didn’t start [coach’s decision], into the lineup.

That helped, but not enough to prevent the 6-8 Belcaster and Perez from combining to score 18 points for Morton in the first half. The Mustangs, in contrast, struggled offensively, shooting 11-for-26 from the floor and getting out-rebounded 23-9 before the break.

“Morton traditionally scores a lot of points, and they have so many weapons,” Baum said. “They’ve typically been a zone team and we worked on zone all week and they played us, man.

“I’m proud of our guys. We didn’t quit. I think a lesser team might have fallen apart. Everyone who went in contributed.”

Baum elected to switch to a 1-3-1 zone trap in the second half and that helped the Mustangs create some offense from their defense, as Wilbut, Millison and Spinuzza [five points, four steals] were able to force some turnovers.

“When we first started the game we really didn’t have that much energy,” said Millison, who had 15 points. “When we went in [at halftime] we had a little talk with everybody and when we left the locker room we came out with a lot of energy and it just picked up through the game.

“That came from more of the defensive end. Once we started picking up the pressure on the ball it just came to us naturally.

“I think [the 1-3-1] threw them off,” Wilbut noted. “I didn’t think they knew what to do with the 1-3-1 so we kind of kept it on almost the whole [rest of the] game.”

Even so, Morton was able to stay in the lead thanks to Perez, who scored 11 points in the fourth quarter and finished with a game-high 28 points and nine rebounds. His three-point play made it 57-53 with 2:16 remaining in the fourth quarter.

But Morton did not score again. Millison sank a three-pointer on the ensuing possession and the hosts turned the ball over on their next three trips.

A free throw by Wilbut tied it at 57-57 and he hit the first of two foul shots with 46 ticks left to give the Mustangs their first lead of the game. Wilbut missed the second shot, but center Greg Garro got the rebound and Millison sank both ends of a one-and-one with :34.8 to go.

After Morton missed a three-pointer, Wilbut rebounded and made two free throws to ice the game with 0:05.9 left.

“I’m very proud of my guys to come over here in this environment and [to] win is huge for our team,” Baum said. “On the other hand, it’s just one game out of 12 for conference, but it should give our guys a lot of confidence. I think Morton out-played us for a good chunk of the game. I think we played smart at the end.”

Kevin Honn had 10 points, four rebounds and two steals and Gannon added eight points for the Mustangs, who look to Wilbut and Millison when the going gets tough.

“We’ve got that leadership role this year,” Millison said. “We’ve got a lot of juniors this year, so we’ve got to kind of set the tone for the younger kids.”

“When the game is on the line, you need to have your leaders kind of take over within the framework of the team,” Baum said. “That’s still our goal. Hats off to them.”