Gravette’s Morrison keeps emotions in check
GRAVETTE — There was no way Shylee Morrison could hold back her emotions on this occasion.
Gravette’s junior guard had used the last 9.4 seconds of a recent 4A-1 Conference game to maneuver around a Huntsville defender and set herself up for a final shot. Her 15foot jumper as the buzzer sounded gave the Lady Lions a 48-47 victory on their basketball homecoming night, and she retreated to midcourt with a yell as her teammates joined the celebration.
Otherwise, Morrison’s facial expression — Gravette coach Will Pittman refers to it as “her competitive look” — hardly ever changes during a game, whether the Lady Lions enjoy a 20-point lead at the moment or face that big a deficit.
“I get that a lot,” Morrison said. “I guess it just comes to me naturally. I don’t mean to keep it the same, but it just does. I’m just out there to win.”
Morrison’s competitiveness impressed Pittman to the point she was given a spot on Gravette’s high school team as a freshman. She didn’t start any games that season, but she saw enough playing time to average 6.6 points, 1.6 rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.
She improved every facet of her game last season as she embraced the starting point guard role, and she averaged 14.7 points, 3.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game. Her improvement continues this season as she leads the Lady Lions with a 20.6-point per game average through the first 20 games, and she also averages almost 5 rebounds and 4 assists per game.
“I think she continues to improve on her abilities,” Pittman said. “Her shooting and her ball-handling are much better than it was a year ago. She puts in countless hours on her game. She has that competitive fire.
“I think she has decided to take on that leadership role and put that pedal down. She’s hard to guard, and in doing that, she makes other players on her team better. She can pull people to her, and she’s a tremendous passer. If they commit too many to her, she’ll find somebody for an easy look. At the same time, when she needs to score, she gets it done.”
Morrison, who scored a career-high 35 points in an earlier meeting against Huntsville, has picked up some of the scoring Gravette missed when Lizzy Ellis went down with an injury in a game against Harrison before Christmas break. She has scored at least 20 points in eight of the Lady Lions’ nine games in January.
Her buzzer-beater against Huntsville allowed her to finish that game with 29 points, and that included her 1,000th career point when she converted a three-point play midway through the third quarter. She’s hit 53.1 percent (156 of 294) of the shots she’s taken this season, including an impressive 59 percent (121 of 205) inside the 3-point line.
“It was left to me to be the leader of this team and carry this team,” Morrison said. “We’re a really young team this year, but Reese Hamilton and Brooke Deihl have stepped up and hit some big shots, and Kaylan Chilton has stepped up in her game, as well as Gabbi Scott on defense. Everybody has come together, so everything isn’t left on me or on one player.
“The area I had to improve on the most was my midrange shots. A lot of people don’t work on that at all, but I’ve hit a few of those shots in games. That has really helped with my confidence a lot. Everybody practices 3-pointers and does layup drills, but not a lot of teams or individuals do midrange, and that’s a big part of the game.”
While she has made changes in her game throughout her high school career, her expressions on the court almost always remain the same. That’s fine with Pittman, as long as she continues to do what she’s supposed to do on the floor.
“That’s the competitor in her, I believe,” Pittman said. “She wants to win, so she’s not going to get too high or not get too low. That’s something good you need in a point guard. She’s pretty steady for us, and that’s probably one of the best parts of her game.
“I’m sure probably some people would like to see more emotion out of her, but she shows more than you think. Her teammates see it, and she talks to them. She’s always keeping her teammates up, which is part of that demeanor you see. She doesn’t let her teammates get down, and she’s always picking them up. I think it’s one of her best qualities.”