Feb. 14--With a high-scoring point guard, a deep bench, enough size and athletes all over its home floor, North Lawndale has pretty much everything that has made Morgan Park the best team in Chicagoland this season.
Everything, that is, except Charlie Moore.
The No. 1 team needed the state's No. 1 senior more than ever on Saturday, when Moore rescued the Mustangs from an 11-point second-quarter deficit and led them to an 85-76 victory against No. 12 North Lawndale in the Public League quarterfinals before a decidedly pro-Phoenix crowd at Collins.
The Memphis-bound Moore (32 points, five assists and four steals) and fellow seniors Alonzo Chatman (12 points, eight rebounds) and Jamal Burton (12 points, nine rebounds) each made several clutch plays in the second half to set up a third meeting of the season with No. 3 Simeon in the semifinals Friday at Quest Multisport on the West Side.
The powers split their two Public League Red-South games.
"This is getting us ready for a championship and also for a state run," Moore said. "We love this type of atmosphere, and we just want to keep this going.
"They had a great defensive team. They played us tough, and they had the crowd behind them. That kind of helped them."
What hurt North Lawndale was the foul trouble 6-foot-7 center Douglas Lowery found himself in from the time Morgan Park (21-2) attacked him on the game's first possession until he fouled out early in the fourth quarter.
The Phoenix (20-7) didn't help themselves with 7-of-12 foul shooting in the final eight minutes either, but what really did them in was Moore.
They had leads of 24-13 and 29-20 before Moore hit 3-pointers on consecutive trips to cut Morgan Park's deficit to three, and Moore made two more 3s during a 12-point third quarter as he looked for his shot on virtually every possession during a spectacular four-minute stretch.
"The third quarter I realized I had to get shots up, had to stay aggressive," Moore said. "It was a very intense game. They had the whole crowd with them. I just knew I had to come a little harder, a little more aggressive."
Mike Helfgot is a freelance reporter for the Chicago Tribune.
Player of the game: Charlie Moore, Morgan Park, 32 points, 5 assists, 4 steals, 4 3-pointers.
Key performers: North Lawndale -- Tyrone Rhivers, 26 points, 11-11 FTs; Davion Rousseau, 13 points. Morgan Park -- Jamal Burton, 12 points, 9 rebounds; Alonzo Chatman, 12 points, 8 rebounds.
