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Morton goes off as SCH Academy denies Malvern Prep sole Inter-Ac title

02/11/2023, 12:30am EST
By Andrew Robinson

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)

MALVERN — Jaren Morton doubled up on Chick-Fil-A then had the game of his life Friday night.

The Springside-Chestnut Hill senior started his day with a chicken biscuit, added on a spicy chicken sandwich — no pickles — for lunch then served up a 34-piece to Malvern Prep with a blistering shooting display.


Jaren Morton (above) went for 34 points on 15 shots as SCH Academy won its fifth straight. (Photo: Andrew Robinson/CoBL)

Morton’s 34-points helped outlast a 30-point effort from the Friars’ Andrew Phillips as SCH denied Malvern Prep an outright Inter-Ac title with a 81-71 win.

“Maybe that might not sound good, but it gave me the energy to come out here and show out,” Morton said.

It was all set up for the Friars, who needed only to win the game to secure the outright Inter-Ac title on a night they celebrated their seniors and had a packed student section ready to erupt for “Silent Night.” Instead, they have to share the Inter-Ac with Penn Charter — the Quakers defeating Germantown Academy 63-49 on Friday — for a second straight year.

That fact wasn’t lost on the Blue Devils either, their slow start in the Inter-Ac costing them a chance to compete for the league title but very much eyeing a run in the upcoming PAISAA brackets. 

One of Morton’s teammates, who obviously hadn’t been there for breakfast, suggested on the way out of the team room that the wing had consumed a bowl of Lucky Charms, “but only the marshmallows. Didn’t touch the cereal.” It was a pretty magical game once he got going, Morton’s sweet shooting stroke connecting again and again from long range.

“After I made the first one, I felt good. After two and three, I felt unconscious, I felt like I wasn’t going to miss for the rest of the game,” Morton, who finished 12-of-15 and 7-of-9 from three, said.

The 6-foot-5 wing missed his first look, a three-point attempt, then got his first score on a transition dunk set up by Keni Williams but he was still at just two points going into the second quarter. SCH was in good position, leading 17-6 after one, but once Rowan Miller scored the basket that broke the Friars’ student section’s silence, the host team was within four and the Blue Devils were nearly halfway through the quarter without a point.

Then, Ron Brown III found Cam Burns for a three with 4:10 left and SCH was back in business. Brown III was excellent in his own right, scoring 15 points with 10 rebounds and eight assists with most of those going to Morton. It was Brown III who found Morton in front of the Malvern bench for his first three with 3:00 left in the first half, then again in the opposite corner on the team’s offensive possession for a three right in front of the student section that put Chestnut Hill ahead 28-15.

“I’m paying attention to detail, making sure all the mechanics are good so when I get into a game, it’s pretty much easy,” Morton said. “I knew they were going to be rowdy the whole game so that was pretty much a silencer right there, it was like, alright, he’s about to start shooting the lights out and it was their wake-up call it was about to be a long night.”

By the time the quarter ended, the Blue Devils had scored 20 points in just 4:10 with Morton accounting for 11 of them. However, the senior knew the Friars wouldn’t just sit content on being down 16 on their home floor and behind a monster second half effort from Phillips, pushed SCH to the limit.

Morton, who said Elon was just out to see him but is uncommitted at the moment, isn’t a chucker either. He wants to impact a game in different ways and if anything, he sometimes has to be pushed to go get his.

Thankfully for SCH, with guards like Burns, Williams and Brown III, the ball’s going to get to the hot hand and on Friday, it kept getting to Morton.

“They’re pretty much telling me, ‘get your shots,’” Morton said. “They see me rolling, they know when I’m not going to miss. I usually don’t shoot in volume a lot, I’m trying to take about 10, 12 shots a game and when they see I’m hot, they’re always saying ‘run this play for Jaren,’ I never gotta ask for a shot, they know.”

Morton had a minute to remember in the third quarter, starting off with a pretty and-one reverse finish on a drive. Then, he hit a step-back three on the right wing and finished the sequence by going up and throwing down a lob pass by Burns for a dunk off a fast break that pushed the lead to 47-30.

“I was feeling it,” Morton said. “I knew I was hot, that’s when I could start working my game. I was getting shots I knew I could make, but maybe don’t usually take in a game.”

At this point, SCH coach Julian McFadden walked by and offered his analysis.

“His coach tells him ‘don’t dribble, just shoot,’” McFadden said, dipping into the team room to collect some gear.

The lead, which had ballooned to 17 at one point, slowly came back to manageable status thanks to Phillips’ relentless efforts both hitting shots and attacking the glass. He had five offensive rebounds alone in the third quarter and his score off a Ryan Williams assist with 5:59 left in the fourth got the Friars back within single digits at 58-51.

Morton, who hadn’t scored since the dunk in the previous quarter, immediately answered with a three. Phillip came right back with a trey of his own - he hit four from outside in the game - but Morton was back in rhythm that fast, hitting a pair of threes 36 seconds apart to push the lead back to 13 with 4:07 remaining.

With six of his seven threes coming off assists, Morton was quick to point out his teammates never stopped looking for him, even if he did have a rare miss.

“They gave me the battery I needed in my back to go have a night,” Morton said. “I feel like I’ve been having a pretty good senior season, putting my statement out there, putting my profile out there and showing I can play at the next level and play Division I basketball.”

Miller, who finished with 19 and Ryan Williams, who had 14 for Malvern Prep, jumped in to help Phillips in the fourth quarter. The Friars wouldn’t fold, getting the lead down to six points four different times only for SCH to answer before the Blue Devils closed the game out by going 6-for-6 at the foul line in the final 35 seconds.

“This gives us, I would say, the nod to know we can go deep into the playoffs,” Morton said. “We can do what we want and win something, that’s our goal.”

By Quarter
SCH Academy: 17  |  20  |  17  |  27  ||  81
Malvern Prep:    6   |  15  |  24  |  26  ||  71

Scoring
SCH: Jaren Morton 34, Ron Brown III 15, Cam Burns 9, Keni Williams 9, Al Amadou 6, Ryan Kull 4, Caleb Alston-Nelson 4

MP: Andrew Phillips 30, Rowan Miller 19, Ryan Williams 14, Hayden Pegg 3, Tague Davis 2, Ryan Pegg 1


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