{"id":116803,"date":"2026-01-09T12:46:39","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T12:46:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/116803\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T12:46:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T12:46:39","slug":"morris-landon-norris-pours-in-career-high-22-points-in-win-over-plano-shaw-local","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/116803\/","title":{"rendered":"Morris\u2019 Landon Norris pours in career-high 22 points in win over Plano \u2013 Shaw Local"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s barely a week old, but the year 2026 already agrees with Morris<\/a>\u2019 Landon Norris.<\/p>\n

After scoring a career-high 18 points in a win over Sandwich last Saturday, Norris \u2013 a senior guard \u2013 upped the ante and delivered a new career best with 22 points Thursday in a 63-53 win over Plano<\/a>. It marks the fourth straight triumph for Morris (6-6) and five wins in its last six games.<\/p>\n

Not only was Norris the driving force for Morris scoring-wise, but his ball-handling ability helped his team break the Plano pressure that gave them fits coming out of halftime.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a really fun game,\u201d Norris said. \u201cTheir pressure took us a little bit to figure out in the second half, but once we did, we were able to break it and score.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re really happy with four straight wins. We are playing a lot more together as a team. We had very long practices during the Christmas break, and we are seeing that work pay off. Everyone contributed tonight, and this was a big confidence boost for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plano (8-8) led 40-39 entering the fourth quarter, but Morris got a basket by Caden Medler (four points, seven rebounds) and one by Hayden Macdonald (eight points, six rebounds) to take a 43-40 lead. Plano\u2019s Cooper Beaty answered with a three-point play to tie the game before Luis Loza (seven points) gave Morris the lead for good with a 3-pointer from the right corner.<\/p>\n

Plano pulled to within 52-50 with 1:57 to play on a three-point play by Alan Contreras (team-high 13 points), but Norris scored on a fast break and was fouled after a Plano turnover, making both free throws for a 56-50 Morris lead. A putback by Macdonald put Morris ahead 58-50 with just over a minute to play, and the Morris defense did the rest, limiting Plano to three free throws the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all starts with our team defense,\u201d Morris coach Joe Blumberg said. \u201cLuis Loza and his effort at the point of our defense was huge. We had RJ Kennedy scoring both inside and outside, Hayden Macdonald was cleaning up on the boards, and Landon and Brycen Johnson did a good job of making good decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had good balance in scoring again, like we did against Sandwich when we had three players in double figures and another with eight. We were aggressive and took some layups in situations where before we might have pulled the ball out. That\u2019s the attitude of this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Plano got out to a 6-2 lead early before Kennedy scored underneath twice in a row off assists from Loza to tie it. Plano led 10-9 when Norris hit a 3-pointer off an assist from Kennedy (11 points, eight rebounds). Medler followed with a pair of free throws before Braylon Schmidt scored for Plano to make it 14-12. Norris ended the quarter with a 3-pointer, and Morris took a 17-12 lead into the second.<\/p>\n

The Reapers began the second quarter with consecutive fast-break baskets by Jayden Zepeda (nine points) to move to within 17-16. The two teams traded blows the rest of the half, and it was tied at 27 at halftime.<\/p>\n

Midway through the third quarter, both Loza and Norris picked up third fouls for Morris and sat the rest of the period. Plano was able to grab a 37-35 lead on a pair of free throws by Eric Nunez (five points) before Morris\u2019 Austin Delahera put back his own miss to tie it. Taxis drained a 3-pointer for Plano, and a pair of Kennedy free throws made it 40-39 entering the fourth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a typical Morris-Plano game,\u201d Plano coach Kyle Kee said. \u201cWe know they are going to be physical, and they were. We didn\u2019t have a lot of attention to detail on defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hadn\u2019t played since the Christmas tournament, so we\u2019re still looking to get back into the groove. It felt like we did enough to win, but when Morris went to their zone, it gave us trouble. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe final was a 10-point difference, but that\u2019s not an indication of how close it was most of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morris switched to a 1-3-1 zone in the third quarter and some of the fourth while Loza and Norris were on the bench, and that seemed to stymie the Reapers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to go to the 1-3-1 to protect our guys that were in foul trouble,\u201d Blumberg said. \u201cI am very proud of the way our guys played tonight. Everyone who got on the floor tonight did their job well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s barely a week old, but the year 2026 already agrees with Morris\u2019 Landon Norris. After scoring a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116804,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[35359,160,162,161],"class_list":["post-116803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-illinois-high-school-boys-basketball","tag-plano","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116803\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}