GORDON LEADS CURIE TO CITY TITLE
Senior Gordon scores 28 to lead Curie to the city title over Mustangs
Curie is the great team no one saw coming. The Condors were ranked seventh in the preseason, and only one player has a scholarship offer.
“I tell people all the time that I never in my wildest dreams thought we would be 29-1 right now,” Curie coach Mike Oliver said.
The 29th win was huge. Curie beat Morgan Park 65-60 on Sunday at Chicago State to win the city championship.
“It means everything,” Condors senior DaJuan Gordon said.
Gordon, a Kansas State recruit, is that one player with a scholarship. He had 28 points and six rebounds. Gordon’s basket with 56 seconds to play put the Condors, who had trailed most of the game, ahead for good.
“It was just me showing that I’m the best player on the court,” Gordon said. “I know I am.”
Morgan Park led by eight after three quarters. Curie point guard Trevon Hamilton changed the momentum at the start of the fourth quarter. He made a three-pointer, took a charge at halfcourt, then dished off an assist to Justin Harmon.
“[Oliver] told me at the end of the third quarter that it was time to step up and make a big play,” Hamilton said.
The Mustangs (26-4) didn’t score a basket in the last 5:20 and committed several crucial turnovers down the stretch.
“We always talk about staying calm,” Hamilton said. “It took longer than we expected, but we still kept playing our game, and we came out with the win.”
“I told them at the beginning of
the fourth quarter that we just needed to get stops, that defense would win the game,” Oliver said.
Hamilton scored seven points, and junior Ramean Hinton added 14 points and six rebounds. Harmon finished with eight points.
“[Gordon] has been unbelievable,” Oliver said. “He does everything, whatever it takes. We put him on [Morgan Park star Adam] Miller in the third and fourth quarter to try to stop him. Stats go out the window. If I allowed Gordon to shoot 30 times, he would score 40 points a game, but he’s a team player.”
Miller scored 23 points, including all five of Morgan Park’s points in the fourth quarter. The Mustangs turned the ball over 21 times.
“The officials took the game from us,” Morgan Park coach Nick Irvin said. “That’s all I’m saying; that’s what it came down to. They think we’re the bad guys. They think we’re the bad team all the time. We’re just like everybody else. There are two separate rules: the Morgan Park rules, then everybody else. I’m tired of it.”
There was a confrontation between the officials and a Morgan Park supporter immediately after the game. Security and CSU police got involved in the hallway in front of Morgan Park’s locker room. CPS security initially told Irvin not to bring his team back out for the postgame handshake, but Irvin insisted on it, and it went on without incident.
“It takes away from our win and makes CPS look bad,” Oliver said. “It’s unfortunate that a great event ends with chaos in the hallway. There is no way that should have happened to take away from something the kids worked so hard for. We shouldn’t have to deal with that nonsense. I’m glad security handled it and no one got hurt, but it’s just sad.”
This is Curie’s first official city championship. The Condors beat Young in the city title game in 2014 but were forced to forfeit the championship by CPS because of alleged rules violations. A Sun-Times investigation later showed that Curie was unfairly punished.