Millbrook sweeps old rival Sanderson in boys and girls basketball

RALEIGH – Millbrook’s basketball teams didn’t skip a beat in their regular season finales at Sanderson Friday as the girls or boys neither trailed for the entire night.

GIRLS

The Wildcat girls had already secured the Cap-8 regular season title, but carried momentum into next week’s conference tournament by thrashing the Spartans 72-28.

Despite having the conference locked up, Millbrook’s coach, Chris East, is taking each game one by one.

“We knew Sanderson was going to come out and play hard, they always do … I’m just happy with the result tonight,” he said. “All I know is we have a game Tuesday night and I do not know who we play yet, so I have to find out but that’s going to be our focus from there.”

Millbrook will play Broughton.

All 10 healthy players scored at least once for the Wildcats, with Kai Crutchfield’s 13 points and Sisalynn Norman’s 17 points leading the way. With players that normally fill reserve roles getting a chance to shine, the Millbrook bench stayed loud and supportive despite the lopsided scoreline.

“We got some kids that don’t get a lot of minutes to get some minutes tonight and we moved a couple JV kids up,” East said. “That’s the future of our program, so we always have to work on something and tonight was trying to get them some minutes to make sure they know what we’re trying to do.”

Jaison Coates led the Spartans in scoring and rebounds, scoring 10 points on 5 for 7 shooting and grabbing seven boards.

BOYS

Millbrook wasn’t able to secure the No. 2 seed in the Cap 8 tournament due to Leesville Road’s win over Wakefield, but it’ll still enter rolling on all cylinders lighting up Sanderson in an 82-66 road victory, its 22nd straight win against the Spartans.

“For us, it’s about getting better and better … we’re right there, we just have to fine tune a few things,” Millbrook Coach Scott McInness said.

However, McInness said despite not capturing the regular season title, his team’s focus is on the N.C. High School Athletic Association playoffs, not the Cap-8 tournament.

“It’s important but it’s more about the state tournament,” he said. “We won’t take it lightly, we’re going come to play and we’re going to grind and get better and prepare for what’s two weeks away.”

Like its counterparts, the Millbrook boys jumped out to a quick start as Jordan Whitfield spurred a 15-1 run to begin the nightcap.

The Spartans narrowed that lead to 22-14, but Patrick Dorsey got the lead back into double digits by hitting a long-range 3-pointer to end the first quarter and then by opening up the second quarter with a fast break in transition.

The second quarter then turned into a back and forth between Whitfield and Trent Dunn as the two repeatedly attacked each other on offense, each ending the first half with 18 points.

“Neither were doing much on the defensive end, but offensively both of them were fantastic,” McInness chuckled. “Both of them were matching each other and that was pretty impressive.”

Dunn hit back to back 3-pointers that cut the deficit to 33-28 but it was as close as the Spartans got for the remainder of the night.

“We knew we could play with them, so it’s not a moral victory that we were able to hang in there,” Sanderson Coach Mike Shaw said. “They just made more shots.”

The offensive fireworks for Sanderson came to a close as the second half as the Spartans were only able to muster up nine points in the third quarter.

With Millbrook’s isolation-heavy game excelling, the Wildcats were able to spread the floor for open shooters as they hit seven 3-pointers in the second half.

“Coming off ball screen stuff, (Whitfield) does a good job looking to hit the open guys, and that’s really important,” McInnes said. “He’s so unselfish … he’s an even better kid than he is a basketball player.”

For Sanderson, the game’s back and forth runs showed another case of the team’s consistency struggles throughout the year. The Spartans swept the likes of Leesville Road, the No. 2 seed in the Cap-8 tournament, but dropped games to the likes of cellar dwellers Enloe and Wakefield.

“The biggest issue there has been team unity and having the guys play as a team instead of indivuals,” Shaw said. “It’s a young group, so a lot of those guys will be back next year and can learn from their mistakes this season.”

Dorsey finished with 19 points for the Wildcats and also passed Danny Mizerk for the second-most 3-point field goals in a single season in Millbrook history with 80.

Whitfield, a Campbell recruit, scored 28 points on 12 of 19 shooting from the field, bringing his points per game total to 24.6 during the Wildcats’ five-game win streak.

Jabari Brown added 11 points for the Wildcats.

Dunn finished with 28 for Sandersonand Jacob Feinstein added another 13.

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 1:09 AM with the headline "Millbrook sweeps old rival Sanderson in boys and girls basketball."