PORTAL — There’s hot, there’s white-hot, and then there’s Stacy Morgan-hot.
The Portal Panthers’ junior guard put on a shooting clinic Saturday night at the Portal Holiday Classic, scoring 21 points and connecting on six of his eight 3-pointers.
And that was just in the second quarter.
Morgan finished with 33 points as the Panthers (7-2) easily took care of South Effingham (8-5) in a 76-44 rout.
The win was a pleasant turnaround for Portal, which was off its game in a 69-67 loss to Metter on Friday.
“In basketball, they aren’t all going to be good nights,” said Portal coach Jeff Brannen. “Last night was one of those times where we just couldn’t get everything to come together for us. It was good to be able to get right back out on the court and we certainly played a much better game tonight.”
Morgan was held scoreless through the first eight minutes as Portal took a slim 14-13 lead, but stole the show in the second period.
Tyler Hagan — who led SEHS with eight points — gave the Mustangs their first lead of the game with a short jumper before Morgan retook the advantage for Portal with a runner. Morgan came up with a steal on the ensuing South Effingham possession and put in a circus layup.
Then he took things a little farther away from the basket.
Morgan hit a 3 from the right corner and — after a short jumper from Robert Lee (7 points) — drilled 3’s on the next three Portal possessions.
Shawn Hagins joined in on the fun with a 3-pointer of his own, then completed a fast break with an easy layup.
Morgan added one more 3 for the period as the Panthers took a 41-27 halftime lead.
“Stacy was one of the guys who really struggled last night,” said Brannen. “We got in some foul trouble early tonight and had to go small. We asked him to pick up the slack and he caught fire. When he gets going, he’s tough to slow down.”
Sidelined in the first quarter with foul trouble, Corey Reese got in on the action as Portal pulled away early in the third quarter.
Reese — who scored 17 points and pulled down nine rebounds — began the half with a quick layup and connected twice more as the Mustangs turned the ball over on each of their first three possessions of the second half.
He converted back-to-back 3-point plays as Portal opened the half on a 14-0 run and outscored the Mustangs 22-6 in the quarter.
“It was good to see Corey get himself back into the game,” said Brannen. “He did a great job down low and came up with some big stops defensively. Overall, I thought that we did a good job of getting everyone involved in the game. That’s what we need if we want more good nights like tonight.”
With the tournament and a solid performance in non-region action now behind them, the Panthers will begin their 3-A sub-region schedule on Jan. 4 as they travel to Savannah Country Day.
Mike Anthony may be reached at (912) 489-9404.
Morgan drops 33 points for Portal