The562’s coverage of Jordan Athletics is sponsored by former LBUSD superintendent Chris Steinhauser.
The562’s coverage of Millikan athletics in the 2023-24 school year is sponsored by Curtis Boyer.
Opening night for Moore League basketball was an emotional one at Millikan, with two moments of silence before the game between the host Rams and the visiting defending league champion Jordan Panthers. The Rams asked for a moment of silence in honor of Joanne Williams, the longtime girlfriend of Jordan coach (and former Rams coach) Chris Francis. Williams, a beloved member of the Long Beach basketball community, passed away unexpectedly last month.
After a beautiful tribute that included balloons, the Rams also honored a member of their varsity team as well as his father, who is battling terminal cancer, presenting the family with a bouquet of flowers and asking for another moment of silence.
After those sobering perspective adjustments, the teams took a few minutes to warm up and then launched the 2023-24 league basketball season. The Jordan press made the difference in the game, as they fended off a late rally by the Rams in an 87-71 victory.
Francis said he was happy with how his team played, and also honored by the way his former school honored Williams.
“It really caught me off guard, it says a lot about Millikan, I had some good years here and there’s still a lot of love here,” said Francis. “Millikan’s classy, I always love Millikan.”
Jordan won the first quarter 22-16 as Jaymari Redmond scored the first six points for the Panthers. A late three by Jeremiah Hunt kept Millikan close, but Jordan’s press got to the Rams in the second quarter, as they won the frame 22-10, with one string that saw them force four consecutive turnovers.
The teams were pretty evenly matched in their halfcourt offense, but Jordan did a good job dictating the way the game was played and making sure the Rams stayed off-balance trying to bring it up the court.
“That’s all we practiced yesterday and preach every day is pace, we want to control the pace of the game,” said Francis. “We want to share the ball, pass up a good shot for a great shot, and once we got going we sped them up.”
In the third quarter the Panthers ran the score up to 61-33, but the departure of Jordan defensive standout Daveyon Chisom helped open the door for a big Millikan run. The Rams handled Jordan’s press much better and went on a 20-7 run to cut the lead to 13 points in the fourth quarter. But every time they started to close the gap, Jordan’s Noel Alvarez answered with a big three-pointer. Alvarez came off the bench to score a game-high 28 points.
Alvarez didn’t just provide a scoring spark, he provided an emotional one as well, turning to his bench and celebrating after each 3-pointer, boosting the excitement as the Panthers staved off the Millikan comeback.
“Coach was saying get read, get ready and I looked back at him like ‘yeah’,” said Alvarez. “This is a big win for us, especially on the road it’s big. Everyone’s going to come for us this year since we won last year, so it’s a great way to start the season for sure.”
Millikan got plenty of good signs from their young roster, especially in the scoring by Hunt, who had a team-high 22 points including 14 in the second half. Parker Snyder provided a huge boost offensively and defensively off the bench in the second half and keyed the third-quarter run as he poured in 16 points, 14 of which were in the second half. In addition to Alvarez, Jordan was led by 11 points from Jamar Andrwes Jr., and 10 apiece from Redmond and Samajay Jackson.
Millikan (4-6, 0-1) will travel to Wilson Friday while Jordan (3-4, 1-0) will host LA Jordan in a Jordan battle on Friday.
