Morrison, Ager became Maui maulers

LAHAINA, Hawaii – If the game was extraordinary, the game within the game was incredible.

This was Adam Morrison vs. Maurice Ager, for what seemed like 150 rounds and not just 15 and the heavyweight championship of the EA Sports Maui Invitational.

They’re the two best players (apologies to Connecticut’s Rudy Gay) in the best in-season tournament in college basketball history, and their meeting Tuesday afternoon – like Gonzaga’s 109-106 triple-overtime checkmate of Michigan State – rendered superlatives inadequate, though there was a downside.

“It felt like a March game, but you’ve got to remember it’s November,” Morrison reminded everyone. “We’ve got a game tomorrow, too.”

That almost seems a shame.

Because for the next four months of the college basketball season, every other game will come in second for sheer theatre and clutch performance. It’s not to suggest that Gonzaga should be handed the national championship or Morrison the Wooden Award right now, but a little hyperventilating is certainly justified.

“Greatest game I’ve ever seen,” one spectator told Morrison as the Bulldogs junior signed autographs afterward, “and that’s coming from a Michigan State fan.”

Eleven lead changes and a tie in the last 4 minutes, 50 seconds – a span during which there were only two missed shots, both by the Spartans. In the three OTs, there were 10 ties and five lead changes. There were only four ball-handling turnovers in those final 20 minutes.

For Gonzaga fans, the obvious barometer was the double-overtime loss to Arizona in the second round of the 2003 NCAA Tournament, which became an instant March Madness classic. Winning this one certainly made all Zags feel better, but the truth is there was an added dimension. For the grand flurry going on in this little snow-globe of game, the miniature scene of Morrison and Ager going at one another made for a multilayered show.

We’ll start with the numbers, though it was more than mere math.

Morrison went off for a career-high and Maui-record 43 points – unless you count the 45 he tattooed on U-Hi when he was playing for Mead High School – that included 14-of-28 shooting and 11 straight free throws after missing his first one. Seven rebounds, four assists – including a couple of selfless dump-offs to teammate J.P. Batista for critical baskets – and two steals made it one of the 6-foot-8 junior’s most complete games.

“He’s a big-time player,” Ager acknowledged. “I give him a lot of credit.”

Ager, a 6-5 senior swingman and a third-team preseason All-American, was only slightly less remarkable – 36 points, including seven 3-pointers, despite being saddled with his fourth foul 91 seconds into the second half.

They were matched up against one another most of the game – and though the stats would suggest neither was guarding the other very closely, it was absolutely not the case.

Morrison allowed that he got caught up in the one-on-one a little bit.

“I played against Maurice a lot this summer at Nike camp (in Indianapolis) and he really impressed me with how athletic he is,” Morrison said. “I liked getting a shot at him and he probably wanted to get a shot at me seeing as I’m a preseason All-American, not that that means anything. He made some great shots – two game-tiers late (at the end of regulation and the first overtime). He hit big shots.”

Between them, 50 of their 79 points either gave their teams the lead or a tie, or cut a two-possession deficit in half.

But while Ager’s foul trouble turned him into a more one-dimensional bomber – “I knew I couldn’t really pick up a cheap charge,” he said – Morrison scored from nearly every angle and used every arrow in his quiver. He hit four 3-pointers, posted up his smaller defenders, ran curls and found shots off screens and popped in some of his trademark runners and pull-up jumpers.

“In big games against tough opponents like this, you have to hit a lot of tough shots,” said Few, “and he hit some tough ones. He did an amazing job, some amazing shots. I don’t think it surprised anybody. How he did it and who he did it against is probably the most phenomenal thing.

“As a coach, you’re trying to put the ball in the best guy’s hands.”

Yet despite the sensational roll Morrison was on, Few resisted the temptation to call his number every time down the floor.

“We went to J.P. a lot, went to Derek (Raivio) and even a couple of situations we were going to go to (Jeremy) Pargo and let him scoot around,” said Few. “They were geared on Adam pretty good, so we tried to spread it around.

“But we’ve all seen him hit those shots. I just don’t think we’ve ever seen him hit them all in the same game.”

The mano-a-mano aspect was particularly telling at the end of two of the overtimes. When Morrison accepted the ball outside the 3-point arc with the clock ticking to less than 10 in the first overtime, Ager spread out in his defensive stance and slapped the floor with his palms, as if to say, “Bring it on.” And that time he prevailed – getting a piece of Morrison’s shot in the key to help force another overtime.

But in the final period, Morrison left Ager hung up on a screen and soared toward the hoop for a dunk. In desperation, Ager fouled him hard from behind to prevent the bucket – but Morrison’s two free throws gave GU a 107-106 lead and left the Spartans without their ace for the final 19 seconds. That proved costly when they needed a 3-pointer to tie in the waning seconds and Shannon Brown had his hurried try smothered by Morrison and Pargo – as MSU coach Tom Izzo screamed and stomped for a foul call.

“There was contact,” Morrison admitted, “but I think their side would agree that it if it was on the other end, the whistle should be swallowed in that situation.

“The beauty of this game was that players were making plays on both ends. The refs didn’t decide it, players decided it.”

Two players in particular, and with maybe 30 NBA scouts in attendance – though Morrison tried not to notice.

“Your game’s going to speak for itself,” he said. “You just play. If you have a bad game, they know you’re a good player still. So you just do what you can do.”

Adam Morrison and Maurice Ager did more than that.

They made November seem very much like March.