The Millikan Rams will head out on the road to face off against the Lakewood Lancers at 7:00 p.m. on Monday. The teams are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Millikan has struggled recently with four losses in a row, while Lakewood will arrive with seven straight victories.
Millikan pushed their score all the way to 65 on Friday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 84-65 bruising from Woodrow Wilson. While losing is never fun, Millikan can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' California basketball rankings (they are ranked 685th, while Woodrow Wilson is ranked 341st).
Millikan's defeat shouldn't obscure the performances of Dylan Williams, who dropped a double-double on 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Max Crawford who scored ten points along with five rebounds. Another player making a difference was Joseph Edwards, who scored seven points.
Meanwhile, even though Long Beach Poly scored an imposing 60 points on Friday, Lakewood still came out on top. Lakewood secured a 66-60 W over Long Beach Poly.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Lakewood to victory, but perhaps none more so than Anthony Williams, who scored 21 points. Keaton Lewis was another key contributor, scoring 20 points along with six rebounds.
Millikan bumped their record down to 5-15 with that defeat, which was their sixth straight at home. As for Lakewood, they have been performing incredibly well recently as they've won eight of their last nine matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 17-6 record this season.
Keep an eye on the arc in Monday's contest: Millikan have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 5 threes per game. It's a different story for Lakewood, though, as they've been averaging only 4.8 threes per game. Given Millikan's sizeable advantage in that area, Lakewood will need to find a way to close that gap.
Millikan came up short against Lakewood in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, falling 67-61. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Lewis, who scored 24 points along with six rebounds and four steals. Now that Millikan knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
