Morgan Set for Lady Bucks Record-Breaking Senior Year (Video Report)
FARWELL—The knee burns, the playground sessions, the sprints, all the hard work…all coming together in this, the senior season for record-breaking Bucktail High basketball standout Maria Morgan.
The numbers and the accolades are the stuff of basketball giants:
508 points as a freshman, 623 as a sophomore, 632 as a junior for a three year total of 1,763. With a comparable senior season (about to begin this Friday as the Lady Bucks play in the Williamson tournament) Morgan will establish point totals likely never again to be seen in Clinton County.
143 female basketball players have surpassed the 2,000 point total in Pennsylvania basketball history; Morgan needs 242 more to reach that plateau. At some point later this season, if form holds, the Lady Buck senior will surpass the Clinton County girls’ record of 2,118, set by Lock Haven High School’s Jessica Zinobile from 1992-1996.
But for Morgan it is more than points. In a recent interview she proudly noted her assists total from last season when she led Bucktail to a 14-9 record and the District 4 playoffs. She talked about the enjoyment she gets from feeding the ball to her teammates and noted she worked the past summer on some new “trick” passes unsuspecting foes may see this season.
Her obvious love of the game began early, she said, when she battled at home with older brother A. J. (a Bucktail boys’ 1,000 point scorer now attending Lycoming College) for time at the family practice hoop.
That continued when she tagged along with father Jim Morgan as he went to the Bucktail gym to referee. It was there, Marie Morgan said, she fell in love with the sport and became motivated to do well.
How well has she done? Third team Class A all-state in 2013 and first team Class A all-state last season, plus three years as a first team Mid-Penn Conference all-star, as selected by the conference coaches.
As for college, Morgan has yet to make up her mind among the many opportunities presented to her. At this point she is looking at a criminology or criminal justice major, but said she is not ready to announce a decision as to a school.
In the meantime, she said, she looks forward to the upcoming season and working with her teammates. She said the sport “keeps me driving,” calling it “a relief to get on the court and do something you love.”
She lauded the support from her parents Jim and Sue and brother A.J. and the greater Renovo community and said she wanted to make her senior season of hoops “enjoyable for everyone.”
Coach Carl Gentzyel had nothing but good things to say about Morgan, paying her the ultimate compliment when he said “she makes everybody better.”
Gentzyel said he is looking for a great year from Morgan, calling her a “hard worker, sometimes too hard on herself…but encourages others to play well through her dedication, desire and will to win.”
Morgan watchers will have 10 more opportunities to see Maria work her magic on the hardwood at the Farwell gym, the first of those next Wednesday, Dec. 10, the opponent St. John Neumann.
Video Report
