Girls Basketball: Top-ranked Young cruises past Morton

Updated: February 15, 2012 9:33PM

Top-seeded Young scored 20 of the game’s first 22 points to roll past Morton 87-25 in its Class 4A Proviso West Regional opener.

Top-ranked Young scored the first 11 points in its Class 4A playoff opener and cruised behind Linnae Harper’s game-high 18 points Wednesday night.

Harper scored 16 points in the first half and Kentucky-bound Janee Thompson added 12 points as the top-seeded Dolphins cruised to an 87-25 victory over 16th-seeded Morton (4-23).

Young (28-0) led 20-2 to start the game and took a 53-14 lead at halftime after ending the second quarter with a 20-3 run.

“I think this was a great game,” Harper said. “It was our first game for state. We came out with a good mentality. We played hard and focused. We had a lot of energy out there.”

Isza Gonzalez scored Morton’s first basket of the game on a layup with 5:12 to go in the first quarter. Neriangela Velez led the Mustangs with nine points and Gonzalez had eight.

Young outscored Morton 22-3 in the third quarter. Yesica Garcia scored Morton’s only basket in that period on a 10-foot jumper.

All but two Young players scored in the game. Reserve Jasmine Ogunjimi scored all 11 of her points in the first half, including three three-pointers.

“We got the whole team involved,” Harper said. “Our main goal was to box out, rebound and keep the other team off the board so we can get ready for our next game.”

The Dolphins will play seventh-seeded Proviso West (21-10) or ninth-seeded Lyons (16-10) in the regional final at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

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