The562’s coverage of Millikan Athletics for the 2025-26 school year is sponsored by Brian Ramsey and TLD Law.
The562’s coverage of Long Beach Wilson Athletics is sponsored by Joel Bitonio, Class of 2009.
Millikan boys’ basketball head coach Stephon Price intentionally built an early season gauntlet of a schedule in hopes of forging a hardened Rams team for league play. That decision paid off in Thursday’s battle of the top teams in the Moore League standings as Millikan picked up a hard-fought 73-62 road win over Wilson High School.
Freshman point guard Quali Giran scored a team-high 28 points with another 23 coming from senior Joseph Wicker. Senior Jeremiah Hunt also added 11 points, all in the second half, with nine points from junior Christian Parron.
“We’ve got that type of team [that] anybody can give us big moments, and we’ve built that through the offseason. We’ve played some of the top talent around, so we know it’s going to take more than one person to win the ball game,” said Price. “The team locks in on that type of thing, as far as being ready when your number is called. Wide open shot? Y’all knock it down. Play together on defense, and you’ll be fine.”
While the final score shows an 11-point win for the Rams, it was a much closer affair throughout the night as Wilson threatened numerous times, including a 39-35 lead in the third quarter, sparked by a huge three-pointer from senior Matthew Searles.
But the deciding moment came with less than five minutes in the game after All-Moore league center Andre Alvarez-Smith cut the Millikan lead to 59-57 as the Rams responded in kind with a massive three-pointer by Giran and a quick follow up bucket from Wicker.
Wilson would never get closer than five points the rest of the night as Millikan grinded out a 14-5 run for the win. Thursday was marked by frenzied defenses and a slew of turnovers on both sides, but it was the Bruins that failed to capitalize in key moments with squandered rebounds and costly mistakes.
“I know what I have in the locker room. I went into this game with the mindset that we were going to win,” said Bruins head coach James Boykin. “And we were right there, and we should have won, but again, we shot ourselves in the foot this game. A really, really, really good team that [went] down to the stretch, and there were some free throws late to make it look like it was a 10,11-point game. It was a close game the whole time.”
Wicker was huge for the Rams, scoring 12 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter, including all five of his free throws attempts.
“We [were] just trying to find the open man, and it happened to be me,” said the senior. “I feel like I’m ready for those moments, and especially with me being a senior and being a leader, I think I’m more than capable.”
Giran also chipped in six rebounds and five assists while also hitting three of his four free throw attempts. His 14 points in the first half, 10 in the first quarter, carried Millikan to a 29-28 halftime lead despite a 10-2 run by Wilson.
“I think I’m developing in being able to play with my team better,” said Giran of his growth.”But as a team, we can still be better.”
“He’s a freshman on paper, but his mentality, yeah, he has a mature mentality,” said Price. “He rises to those moments, and he plays the highest level of basketball. He’s built for this.”
Wilson came out swinging with a 9-3 advantage in the first quarter, but it was quickly chipped away by Giran and Parron for Millikan’s first lead at 13-12. Giran hit a jumper as time expired for a 21-15 Millikan lead after the opening quarter.
Nehemiah Parris led all Bruins with 18 points, followed by 17 from Alvarez-Smith. The senior Searles was limited to eight points, three in the first half and two in the fourth quarter.
Millikan (7-5, 2-0) will be back in action on Friday to host Calvary Baptist in a non-conference matchup while Wilson (10-4, 2-1) gets more than a week off before hosting Cerritos on Dec. 26.
