MCHS survives Livonia, 59-56

No. 9 Morgan City High School held off No. 24 Livonia’s upset bid for a 59- 56 victory in Class 4A bi-district playoff action in Morgan City Friday.
After Morgan City (25-6) made a huge late second-quarter run to tie the game at 29 at halftime, the two teams played close in the third quarter, with Morgan City taking a 47-45 lead after three quarters.
Each team scored 12 points in the final period.
Morgan City High School coach Terence McCutcheon said he was trying to keep the game close in the third quarter while protecting multiple players, who had three fouls apiece. He said his strategy was to keep the game close where he could play those guys more minutes in the final period.
“Once we got through the third quarter, without getting any of those guys their fourth foul, we were able to close it out, but it came down to free throws for us,” McCutcheon said.
Morgan City hit 21 of 28 free throws, while Livonia was just 5 of 15 from the free-throw line.
“Free throws won the game for us,” McCutcheon said.
Morgan City also benefitted from Livonia’s leading scorer, Jeremy Richard, getting in foul trouble.
“Once he got three fouls, I started trying to attack him and make him play defense, make him use energy,” McCutcheon said. "We guarded him different on pick-and-rolls. We double teamed him more, just wanted him to have to work for everything he got.”
Richard finished with a game-high 30 points.
“The kid was hitting everything,” McCutcheon said. “They were tough shots, and he was ready. He stepped up bigtime, and he carried them pretty much all night.”
Morgan City will continue postseason play Tuesday when it travels to face No. 8 Edna Karr in Class 4A regional round action. Karr advanced after routing No. 25 seed Franklin Parish 72-32.
In Friday's win, Deondre Grogan led three Tigers in double figures with 13 points.
Other Morgan City double-digit scorers were Jared Singleton with 12 and Kerwin Francois with 11.
Early on, Morgan City jumped out to a 7-2 lead after Grogan’s three-point play after he was fouled on a layup and converted the ensuing free throw with 4:40 remaining in the opening period.
However, Livonia (19-9) went on a 14-0 run to close the quarter for a 16-7 first-quarter lead.
Ten of Livonia’s 14 points were scored by Richard. He closed the quarter with a basket with 32.6 seconds remaining for a 16-7 Livonia lead.
Morgan City finally broke its scoring drought, which lasted 5:04, at the 7:36 mark when Singleton made the second of two free-throw attempts to cut Morgan City’s deficit to 18-8.
While the Tigers got their first field goal since the 4:40 mark of the first quarter when Devonta Grogan converted a layup off a steal by a teammate, Livonia maintained its lead. Livonia built as much
as a 12-point lead on two occasions, the last at 27-15 on Kyron Ford’s three-pointer with about five minutes remaining in the first half.
“To start the game, it just seemed like we were kind of watching the action from the outside instead of being in the action,” McCutcheon said. “I don’t know if it was a playoff game and some of the guys
kind of getting caught up in the moment.”
Down 27-15, however, Morgan City closed the half on a 14-2 run to tie the game at 29 at the break. Morgan City’s run included a trio of three-pointers, the last by Deondre Grogan late in the quarter to tie the game at 29.
McCutcheon said he used the team’s press to jumpstart its offense.
“It kind of gave us a rhythm, and we fought back. … It seemed like the guys were able to relax a little bit once we tied the game and went into halftime,” he said.
Other Morgan City scorers in Friday’s win were Taaj Daniels, six; Devonta Grogan, five; Morrquise Charles, four; Tywaun Walker, three; and Ke’Sean Francois, two.
Ford also reached double figures for Livonia with 15.
“At the end of the day, you got to give Livonia credit,” McCutcheon said. “They came out. They were prepared. The players came in, played hard from the start. They were physical. We got to do a better
job on the backboard, especially defensive rebounding, but we got the win. That’s the most important thing.”