Utrillo Morris comes up big for Roosevelt in thrilling 6A quarterfinal win: ‘I’m trying to finish with a ring’

The 5-foot-9 senior guard has a game-high 23 points to help send Roughriders past Grant and to OSAA boys basketball semifinals

Utrillo Morris is Roosevelt’s little engine that could — and did — will his team to the semifinals of the OSAA Class 6A boys basketball state tournament. 

The 5-foot-9 senior point guard had one of the best games of his career Wednesday night at the University of Portland’s Chiles Center, scoring a game-high 23 points with nine rebounds, three assists and four steals in a 67-65 victory over PIL rival Grant.

“Man, we feel like without him on the floor, our car just doesn’t run accordingly,” said first-year coach Jamarr Lawson, who took over for Yusef Leary after serving as an assistant the previous four seasons. 

While most of the attention focused on the frantic final seconds of Wednesday’s quarterfinal — during which Morris’ more ballyhooed classmate, Utah State signee Terrence Hill Jr., returned after cramping late in the game to lay in the winning basket as time expired — the Roughriders wouldn’t have been in position to win without Morris’ efforts.

The Generals bottled up Hill for much of the game, holding him to seven points on 3-of-6 shooting, but that allowed Morris to do his thing, lifting the Roughriders to their first big-school semifinal since 1950 (they reached the 5A final in 2007 and the 4A semifinals in 2011), where they’ll face Beaverton on Friday afternoon.

“He does it every year, every game,” Hill said. “It’s not a surprise for me. I know what he can do.”

Morris displayed his lightning speed and quick hands to pester the Generals defensively and attack the lane repeatedly, finishing 10 of 18 from the field.

More important, Morris stepped up while Hill sat on the bench, trying desperately to get his calf muscle to relax so that he could return to the game. 

“He was checking on his brother Terrence, asking, ‘Man, where’s he at?’” Lawson said. “And I said, ‘You’re going to have to get this done, big dog. I need some big buckets. Trust yourself. We need you to take those shots.’”

And in that moment, Morris delivered. After Grant took its first lead, 63-61 with 47 seconds left, Morris sliced through traffic for a tying layup with 38 seconds to go.

After the Generals retook the lead on two free throws by Vashon Hardges with 25 seconds left, it was Morris again who took the initiative, drawing two defenders before slipping the ball to Syrius Owens for a layup with 19.6 seconds to play.

“He’s been an underdog forever,” Lawson said. “It’s a part of him. He’s been the reason why we are where we are today. Without him, we wouldn’t be writing this story right now.”

As the volume in a packed Chiles Center increased and the tension built, Morris said, “I wasn’t really feeling nothing, to be honest. All I was thinking is that this is my senior year, and I’ve done too much to go out in the first round at Chiles.”

He flashed back to two years ago, when the Roughriders were on the other end of a crazy finish in a quarterfinal loss to Summit, and a year ago, when they surrendered a double-digit halftime lead to Tualatin in the first round.

“So, I’ve got a chip on my shoulder,” he said. “I’m trying to finish with a ring. That’s really my main goal. So, offensively, defensively, I’m not really worried about how I perform. I just want to get the job done.”

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Photos by Taylor Balkom