Trey Morrow of the Scott Highlanders on March 3, 2020. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY DAVE LINK
Scott’s Trey Morrow put up some big numbers Friday night – and wasn’t even at the top of his game.
The 6-foot-3 junior point guard scored 25 points, grabbed 13 rebounds, and blocked five shots, but the Highlanders lost at Fulton, 72-54.
“We just didn’t play our game,” Morrow said. “They out-worked out, out-toughed us, everything. We just couldn’t get it done tonight.”
Morrow was 11 of 21 on two-point shots and 1 of 6 from 3-point range. He missed all four of his free throws.
“Credit Fulton, they did a great job,” Scott coach Jordan Jeffers said. “They got it really sped up and put us in a bind defensively and did a really good job on Trey. They did a really good job getting up underneath him and making everything hard for him, and then the other guys didn’t make shots.”
Fulton (6-2, 1-1 in District 4-AA) and Scott (4-1, 0-1) were each missing three players due to COVID-19 issues or injury.
The Falcons were without junior wing Damin Holt, senior wing Jayden Jenkins, and sophomore guard/wing Jordan Wrancher. Holt has a back injury.
Scott was missing starters Trevor McCarty and Eli Storey and one of its first players off the bench, Brayden Brumett.
Morrow and the Highlanders were playing their first game since Nov. 24.
“Trey just missed some shots,” Jeffers said. “He missed some free throws. He’s not played either (since Nov. 24). I think some of it’s rust. I think a lot of it is Fulton did a really good job.
“With the lineups we had tonight, we were really limited as to what we could do offensively. I think some of that is we weren’t able to run our stuff. On a normal night when we’ve got all of our guys, we run enough stuff to get Trey looks and take advantage of the attention he gets. Tonight, we were so limited with our lineup and what we could run offensively, it made it tough.”
In his first four games this season, Morrow averaged 29 points, 13 rebounds, four assists, 2.5 blocks, and 2.8 steals.
Fulton coach Jody Wright didn’t need a scouting report on Morrow.
“I think he’s one of the best players around here,” Wright said. “He just presents so many problems for you with his length, he protects the rim, he shoots it from the parking lot, he’s great going to the glass, he’s strong. He’s a hard matchup for you. I really like his game. I’ve enjoyed watching him play and watching him grow. He never shows his emotions. He just plays. He’s a special guy.”
Wright used 6-3 freshman forward Tyler Lee to defend Morrow on Friday night.
“Tyler did a good job,” Wright said. “I think his length was the difference right there. That was a big task for Tyler, seven or eight games into your freshman year to guard one of the premier guys in this part of the state, for sure. I thought Tyler did a nice job on him tonight.”
Last year, Morrow averaged 23 points and 11 rebounds, earning all-district, all-region, and all-state honors as Scott finished 24-7 after a five-point loss to Fulton in the Region 2-AA semifinals.
As a freshman, Morrow averaged 16.5 points and was the District 4-AA Newcomer of the Year.
“You have to watch Trey in person to understand exactly what he means to us as a basketball team and to understand how good he is,” Jeffers said. “He doesn’t just rebound and he doesn’t just score. He’s a stat stuffer, up and down. He blocks shots, he gets steals, he gets deflections. He’s got the ball in his hands, he rebounds it every trip. He initiates offense. If he doesn’t score the ball, he assists it for the scorer.”
College coaches have Morrow on their radar.
So far, he has been contacted by Belmont, Alabama-Huntsville, and Lee University.
“I’m going to play college ball,” Morrow said. “It’s been a dream of mine to play college ball since I was little.”
It won’t surprise Jeffers.
“He’s so smart and cerebral,” Jeffers said. “He’s just a great basketball player. He’s not extremely athletic, but he’s athletic enough. He doesn’t jump extremely high, but he jumps high enough. He’s just a solid fundamental basketball player.”
FALCONS BOUNCE BACK
Fulton had a bounce-back game against Scott after losing at Kingston, 66-55, on Tuesday night in its district opener.
Lee led the Falcons in scoring against Scott with 22 points, while sophomore wing Marcellus Jackson scored 15 and senior forward Tommy Sweat had nine points.
“I felt like we got manhandled Tuesday night (at Kingston) from a physical standpoint,” Wright said. “We worked on being more physical and trying to play more physical and we did a little better job of it tonight.”
Wright said Holt is out for “an extended period” with the back injury.
“To be honest, he was probably our best player when we lost him,” Wright said.
Scott plays at Catholic on Saturday at 4:30.
Fulton plays at Austin-East on Saturday at 1:30.
It will be the Falcons’ last game until Jan. 5 with Knox County Schools going to virtual learning with no athletic activities starting Monday due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It is what it is,” Wright said of the shutdown. “I don’t think anybody’s happy with it, but at the same time, I’m not going to sit here and criticize people that are having to make tough decisions. I’m not sitting in those meetings and I don’t know what information they’re looking at.
“As we talked with our guys, control the controllables. We can control our effort, we can control how hard we work. We can’t control what happens outside. We can’t control the pandemic or being shut down. Let’s don’t focus on those things. Let’s focus on what we can control.”
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