Long Beach Poly defeated Wilson and Millikan took down Lakewood on Wednesday afternoon to set up a first-place Moore League clash on Friday evening at Poly at 6:30 p.m. Both teams are undefeated at 5-0 in league.
The Jackrabbits defeated Wilson 79-60 on a night that saw them get big contributions from several players, with Peyton Watson putting up 15 points, half his season average.
“When Peyton isn’t great we need other guys to step up, I thought other guys did that tonight,” said Poly coach Shelton Diggs.
Chris Watson, Peyton’s little brother, had 19 points in the game and earned his first scholarship offer afterwards from Cal. Solomon Jones had 18 points as he continues to develop consistency for the Jackrabbits, who also got 11 points from Anthony Robinson.
There was a nice-sized Wilson student section that was loud all night and did plenty of heckling of Watson.
“I love all that,” said Diggs. “Peyton loves that, I know that gets him going. Nice to see some fans at these Moore League games.”
For Wilson coach James Boykin, it was a frustrating game that saw his team turn the ball over frequently.
“That’s how our season has been, there isn’t one consistent thing that jumps up and bites us, it’s something different from game to game, and tonight it was turnovers,” he said. “I thought the guys played hard, it was just turnover after turnover.”
Wilson was led by Jason Allen’s 25 points and Jackson Barnhill’s 12.
Millikan defeated Lakewood 64-48, led by 32 points from Rob Diaz and 16 from Myles Carmon. Bonard Johnson had 14 for Lakewood and Corali’i Mila had 13.
