LONG BEACH — The first meeting of the season between the Millikan and Long Beach Wilson boys basketball teams lived up to its billing Thursday night.
It was the Rams’ ability to force turnovers, as well as to score quickly after the Bruins made baskets, that proved to be the difference.
Millikan guards Quali Giran and Joseph Wicker combined for 51 points and 13 rebounds in a 73-62 win that handed Wilson its first loss in Moore League play.
The Rams (7-5, 2-0) forced 24 turnovers and secured extra possessions by crashing the offensive glass. The win was their fourth in the last five contests.
“We play with a sense of urgency,” Millikan coach Stephon Price said. “We worked hard all year on the track, conditioning, so we play with a sense of urgency on that side of the ball and we force a lot of turnovers.”
Giran had a game-high 28 points to go with six rebounds, Wicker added 23 points and seven boards and fellow guard Jeremiah Hunt chipped in 13 points.
Giran, a freshman, said a tough nonleague schedule that featured losses to Open Division-level teams Sierra Canyon, Inglewood and Harvard-Westlake, helped him mature quickly to start his first high school season.
“As a team, we can still be better,” Giran said. “I was able to see how top D-1 schools play as a team, how the defense is, how they rotate. All the little things that they do that matter.”
Wilson (10-4, 2-1) missed just one of its seven first-quarter shot attempts and opened the game on a 9-3 run. The Bruins’ problem, however, was their 11 turnovers during the first eight minutes, including miscues on seven consecutive possessions.
Giran got off to a fast start with 10 points in the opening quarter.
The Bruins trailed by as many as 10 points with 5:13 left in the first half before closing on an 11-2 run to pull within 29-28 at the break. The Rams closed the final 5 1/2 minutes of the half without a made shot from the field.
Wilson coach James Boykin said the self-inflicted issues were just too much to overcome.
“Killed us,” Boykin said of the turnovers. “For me, it’s the frustration level of shooting ourselves in the foot. For us to have that many turnovers. On top of that, how many loose balls did we have and just not secure? That’s, I don’t want to say nothing to do with them, but that’s more us than them.”
The Rams briefly lost the lead inside the first three minutes of the third quarter.
Nehamiah Parris, Matthew Searles and Noah Jaramillo each connected on a 3-pointer to put the Bruins in front 39-35. Andre Smith-Alvarez, who was otherwise a force in the paint, missed a pair of free throws that would have extended the lead with 4:44 left in the third.
Parris and Smith-Alvarez each finished with 18 points and Brooklyn Vega had 12 for Wilson.
Boykin said his team’s discipline got them back into the game.
“We had our game plan,” Boykin said. “Forcing them to take tough shots, rebound the basketball, and when we did that … it made it tough on them.”
Millikan quickly responded with a 7-0 run that was capped by a Hunt 3-pointer off a Wilson turnover.
The Rams had 13 points off turnovers through three quarters, including eight in the opening quarter.
“The keys were just getting stops on defense, being able to play as a team,” Giran said of the third-quarter momentum shift. “We don’t let the defense set up usually, if they make it or miss it.”
The Rams took a 52-45 lead into the fourth. The Bruins cut the deficit to 56-55 on a Vega layup with five minutes left but never tied the game nor regained the lead the rest of the way.
The teams will meet again Jan. 23 at Millikan.