{"id":137537,"date":"2026-01-17T09:40:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/137537\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T09:40:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T09:40:07","slug":"millikan-beats-long-beach-poly-for-first-time-in-a-decade-take-sole-possession-of-first-place-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/137537\/","title":{"rendered":"Millikan Beats Long Beach Poly For First Time In A Decade, Take Sole Possession Of First Place \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"

The562\u2019s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The562\u2019s coverage of Long Beach Poly Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Former Jackrabbits Wendell \u201cWoWo\u201d Moe, Jr. & Tyson Ruffins.<\/a><\/p>\n

Story by: Chris Trevino<\/p>\n

It had been a long, long time since Millikan boys\u2019 basketball had beaten Long Beach Poly. Specifically? Three thousand and fifty eight days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A decade.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That ten-year drought came to an end on Friday night as the Rams defeated Long Beach Poly 61-51 in a battle of the top Moore League teams in front of a sold out crowd at Millikan High School.<\/p>\n

The Rams (15-6, 6-0) moved into sole possession of first place in the Moore League with their first win over the Jackrabbits (14-7, 5-1) since January, 11th, 2016, a 78-67 road victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, that\u2019s why they hired me,\u201d said a grinning Millikan head coach Stephon Price. \u201cThey hired me to make things like this happen, and that\u2019s what I\u2019m here for, to change the environment. Change history. I want to be a part of history. So that\u2019s why I took his job.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s for sure a statement win,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s probably the best one we\u2019ve had all year. It wasn\u2019t the best shooting night; it was the worst shooting night we\u2019ve had. We\u2019ve shot way better than that. But yeah, man, a statement win for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senior Millikan guard Jeremiah Hunt led all scorers with 24 points, 12 in the fourth quarter, and a perfect 11-on-11 from the free throw line to go with seven rebounds and six assists. Freshman phenom Quali Giran chipped in 20 points with three rebounds and three assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The battle for first was knotted up at 36-36 heading into the fourth quarter, where the Rams turned it on with a game-high 25 points, including five three pointers. Hunt kicked off the fourth with his second three of the night to send the Millikan section rocking.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Long Beach Poly answered quickly with a three-pointer from\u00a0Isaac Hagens\u00a0and back-to-back buckets from center Jonas Oware for a quick 43-39 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet, the Rams did not panic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In fact, it was the moment the freshman Giran, who struggled to find a consistent shot throughout the night, took over the game with back-to-back three pointers to put Millikan back up 45-43.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him, \u2018This is why you are here. These are moments you live for,\u2019\u201d said Price. \u201cAnd he rides for those moments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Giran\u2019s spurt kicked off an 11-0 run that included another Hunt three-pointer and a gym-rocking basket from junior Christian Parron (10 points, six rebounds) for a seven-point lead with 2:23 left. Poly\u2019s\u00a0Nana Ofoegbu\u00a0stole momentum back with a three-point play but senior Jalen Stewart (five steals) responded with the dagger fifth three.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was a quarter made even more impressive given that the Rams could not find the bottom of the basket in the third quarter despite several open looks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told them, \u2018Keep going. Keep going. We make those shots. We always make those shots. We always grind that out,\u2019\u201d said Price. \u201cSo I knew the shots were gonna fall. We just gotta stay the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mentality was just keep shooting,\u201d said Hunt. \u201cEven though we [had] home court advantage, we knew that some were going to fall eventually. In the fourth quarter, they started falling.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poly had a notable size advantage over the Rams but the home team scrapped for rebounds all night and recorded 18 steals to further stymie the Jackrabbit offense. It was nothing Millikan hadn\u2019t seen before during a brutal non-conference slate.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, we played Harvard-Westlake, Sierra Canyon, Notre Dame, Santa Maria. Their sizes are average compared to those guys,\u201d said Price with a smile. \u201cSo that\u2019s the reason why I did my schedule like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we just outhustled them,\u201d said Hunt on their defensive efforts. \u201cI think we played harder than them and I\u2019m just excited we got the win.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Jackrabbits were down from the start, losing starting senior guard Julian Calderone to an apparent knee injury in the opening minute of the game. Calderone quickly scored the first points of the night off the tip but dropped on the other end of the floor while playing defense on the perimeter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Calderone writhed in pain for several moments as he gripped his knee before he was helped off by trainers. He did not return to the game or the sideline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Poly\u2019s\u00a0Ofoegbu led the Jackrabbits with 14 points while\u00a0Oware added 13 points.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Millikan is back in action next week at Jordan while Long Beach Poly looks to rebound against Lakewood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":137538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-137537","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-long-beach","9":"tag-long-beach-headlines","10":"tag-long-beach-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/137538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}