The Morgan Academy girls didn’t knock down too many shots from the field, but with Emily Sherrer making 11 out of 14 free throws, they didn’t need to.

“Her free throws are probably why we won,” said Morgan head coach Lee Tate. “She hit almost all of them.”

Sherrer led the Senators (5-9) with 15 points in a 28-21 home victory over the Hooper Academy Colts Tuesday. Mary Stewart added six points, including the first three points of the game.

Regan Hewitt hit a driving layup to give Morgan a 9-5 lead at the end of first quarter. With 5:17 left in the second quarter, Sherrer extended the Senators’ lead when she stole the ball and broke away for an easy layup.

The Colts took back the lead 13-11 in the second quarter, but two Sherrer free throws tied the game. Caroline Thomas connected on a turnaround baseline jumper to put Morgan in front 16-13 with just over 20 seconds left in the second quarter.

Sherrer added another two free throws to give the Senators an 18-13 advantage at halftime.

With 4:02 remaining in the third quarter, Kenzie Horton got on the board with a freet throw that pushed Morgan’s lead to 24-13.  The Senators held the Colts scoreless in the second half until there was 1:30 left in the third quarter.

After Morgan took a 24-17 lead into the fourth quarter, Hooper made a desperate attempt to comeback. Sherrer’s foul shooting held the Colts off, however, as she added another two free throws with 1:22 left to give the Senators a 27-18 lead, and effectively put an end the Colts’ hopes.

“She’s clutch,” Tate said of Sherrer. “She gives everything 100 percent, and that comes from her practicing.”

 

Hooper 56, Morgan 42 (boys)

Sawyer Hopkins finished with a season-high 22 points and added nine rebounds, but his dominant night near the basket wasn’t enough to get past Hooper Academy.

The Senators (7-8) fell to the Hooper Academy Colts 56-42 Tuesday at Morgan. After trailing early, the Senators were never able to recover, as they fell in their second area game of the season.

“We’ve got to play harder,” said Morgan head coach Lee Tate. “We can’t play hard enough. On defense, we’ve just really got to get after it a lot more.”

Morgan fell behind 6-0, but Hopkins kept his team in it by hitting the first two field goals for the Senators.

“Sawyer always plays with confidence,” Tate said. “He’s very even-keeled and very on-task. He’s focused for a sophomore, it’s rare.”

Late in the first quarter, Terrence Wilson sunk a mid-range jumper for Morgan, and the Senators trailed 13-7 after the first period.

Hopkins opened the second quarter by knocking down two free throws, but the Colts went on another 6-0 run to take a 19-9 lead.

After Hooper made a 3-pointer, Woodham Kemmer drove in for a layup to cut the Morgan deficit to 22-12.

With three minutes left in the half, Jackson Henderson and Hopkins made back-to-back layups to narrow the Morgan deficit to 26-20. Hooper swung the momentum back in its favor before halftime, as the Colts took a 30-20 lead at the midway point.

Early in the third quarter, Harrison Adams found a cutting Henderson for a two-point shot to bring Morgan to down 12 points. Hopkins dropped the Hooper lead back to 10 with a layup with three minutes remaining in the third quarter.

With 2:11 left in the third quarter, John Ross Bone hit Morgan’s only 3-pointer of the game to cut the Hooper lead to single digits.

Ultimately, Morgan couldn’t make a late run to come back. The Senators trailed 42-29 at the end of the third quarter, and were unable to get back into the game in the fourth quarter as they fell by a 14-point margin.

“Once they get more comfortable with what we want to do, spreading the floor out a little more, getting more drives, by the time the end of the season gets here they’ll play with a lot more intensity than they did tonight,” Tate said.

Morgan faces Hooper again on the road next Tuesday.