Mount Carmel rallies to end Morton's unexpected quest for Pekin tournament title

PEKIN — The Morton boys basketball team made a habit of winning close games in the 56th annual Pekin Insurance Holiday Tournament.

In two days, the Potters had overtime wins over Richwoods and No. 1 seed Moline, plus a down-to-the-wire victory over rival Washington. That sent the Potters into the tournament championship game for the first time since 1994 and only the third time in 43 years.

No. 2 seed Chicago Mount Carmel didn't let Morton win another nail-biter.

The undefeated and state-ranked Caravan from the Chicago Catholic League rallied from a 13-point deficit late in the third quarter Wednesday night to beat Morton 62-56 in front of a large, noisy and enthusiastic crowd in Hawkins Gym.

"Every one of our games (in the tournament) was close. We grinded out wins and we finished strong in every one but this one," said Morton's Beau Durbin, who led the Potters in the loss to Mount Carmel with 18 points and was a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line.

"Before the tournament, nobody expected us to be in the championship game. I'm proud of the way we played in the tournament. I love how we battled," Durbin said.

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Morton coach Matt Franks said the Potters (11-3) can use what happened down the stretch Wednesday as a learning experience.

Down 49-40 after three quarters, Mount Carmel (16-0, No. 8 in Class 3A) outscored Morton 22-7 in the fourth quarter, mainly by harassing the Potters into six turnovers.

Morton had just four turnovers combined in the first three quarters.

"What did we learn from this game? When you play a team as good as Mount Carmel, the margin for error is very small," Franks said.

Durbin pinpointed what happened to his team in the final eight minutes.

"They (Mount Carmel) sped us up, we turned the ball over a lot, and they got some easy transition baskets," the senior guard said.

Morton went ahead 49-36 with 1:20 left in the third quarter on an acrobatic drive to the hoop by Seth Glatz.

But Mount Carmel got some momentum when Angelo Ciaravino grabbed a loose ball, raced nearly the length of the court and slammed home a one-handed dunk at the third-quarter buzzer.

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That turned out to be an exclamation point on a 14-point Mount Carmel run that put the Caravan in front 50-49 with 4:36 to go in the game on a triple by Eddy Lyons.

A basket by Durbin sent Morton back in front 51-50, and there were five lead changes after that.

Mount Carmel took the lead for good 57-56 on a layup by Elijah Joiner with 1:16 to go, and iced the win on a 3-pointer by Anthony Ciaravino and a pair of free throws by Lyons.

The game was tied 27-27 at halftime.

Morton went 5-for-6 at the free throw line in the last 20.9 seconds of the half, taking advantage of a technical foul called on the Mount Carmel bench, which protested a foul called on a Caravan player.

Another technical foul — this one on Mount Carmel's Anthony Ciaravino — fueled a 10-point Morton run that sent the Potters ahead 39-30 with 4:30 left in the third quarter.

Ben Carter scored 12 points for Morton. He had three of the Potters' nine triples. Glatz had nine points and Wes Gudeman had six for Morton.

Joiner, a 6-foot-5 senior forward, had a double-double for Mount Carmel with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

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The Caravan's DeAndre Craig, recipient of the tournament's Jeff Stoner MVP Award, scored 18 points. The 6-1 junior guard had three of Mount Carmel's eight triples.

Mount Carmel had just five turnovers in the game.

The teams combined for 43 triple tries, with Morton going 9-for-23 and the Caravan going 8-for-20.

Morton beat Pekin in 1994 for its lone Pekin tournament title. The Potters lost to Peoria Central in the 1991 tournament championship game.

Mount Carmel has now been in the tournament championship game three times in 14 years.

The Caravan hadn't played for the title since 2009, when it lost to Peoria Richwoods. Mount Carmel beat Richwoods in 2007 for their only previous tournament title.

Steve Stein can be reached at (248) 224-2616 or stevestein21@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @SpartanSteve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Pekin holiday tournament: Mount Carmel basketball rallies past Morton