Basketball Preview: Millbrook Wildcats vs. Heritage Huskies
Millbrook is 9-1 against the Huskies since December of 2018, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Millbrook Wildcats will look to defend their home court against the Heritage Huskies at 6:15 p.m. Hopefully Millbrook focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 17 on Tuesday.
Millbrook fell on hard times earlier this season, but after back-to-back wins it seems like their luck might finally be changing. They walked away with a 47-36 victory over Wake Forest. Winning is a bit easier when you work as a team to rack up seven more assists than your opponent, as Millbrook did.
Millbrook found their leader in underclassman Lauren Brown, who scored 24 points. That makes it three consecutive games in which Brown has scored at least a third of Millbrook's points. Ariana Morris was another key contributor, scoring seven points along with six rebounds.
Meanwhile, Heritage's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Tuesday after their ninth straight loss. They were beaten by Rolesville 57-29. While losing is never fun, Heritage can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 407th, while the Rams are ranked 16th).
Despite the defeat, Heritage had strong showings from Nia Jones, who scored 18 points along with five rebounds, and Selah Jackson, who scored four points along with eight rebounds and four steals. Jones is trending in the right direction, as she's improved her point production for three games straight.
Millbrook's win ended a seven-game drought at home and bumped them up to 5-14. As for Heritage, they dropped their record down to 3-14 with that defeat, which was their seventh straight on the road.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Millbrook have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 28.4 rebounds per game. However, it's not like Heritage struggles in that department as they've been averaging 26.7 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Millbrook strolled past the Huskies in their previous matchup back in January by a score of 40-26. Does Millbrook have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Huskies turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
