The Millard North boys basketball team rose to No. 1 in Class A in the latest NEBPreps Coaches Poll, and the Mustangs backed that ranking up by handing No. 9 Omaha Central its first loss of the season on Friday night.
Milled North (5-1) took down the Eagles (4-1) 47-37 in a low-scoring grinder. The teams were neck and neck nine minutes into the game, then Millard North flexed its defensive muscles and held Central scoreless for the next nine minutes, closing the first half on a 12-0 run to build a 26-13 lead.
Nine points is as close as the Eagles got in the second half as the Mustangs held Central to 25.5% shooting from the field overall.
“These guys, when we started talking about goals at the beginning of the year, one of the things that they said is we want to be a really good defensive team, and we want to be able to lean on our defense,” Millard North coach Mike Etzelmiller said. “We’ve got some guys that are very unselfish. We always say it’s going to be somebody’s day, somebody’s going to have a good day, and if it’s not your day, defend and rebound.”
It wasn’t anybody’s day in particular on Friday as the Mustangs only shot 33.3% inside the arc and didn’t make a 2-point shot in the second half. However, they went 6-for-11 from deep in the half and 9-22 overall in the game, more than enough to prevent any kind of comeback.
Millard North senior Coriahnn Gallatin brings the ball up the floor against Omaha Central. Photo by Jack Stephens.
“We’ve got some shooters, and those guys have worked really hard to be shooters,” Etzelmiller said. “They put a lot of time in to be able to have that ability and have that skill, so I’m proud of it. It’s not something that that I would like to come out and do every game, but when you can have it and you can stretch the defense, it sure is a nice ability.”
One of those shooters is senior point guard Coriahnn Gallatin, who led the team with 11 points and four assists on Friday. Last week, the dynamic shooter broke the Class A record for career 3-pointers made. He’s at 264 and counting, knocking them down at a 43% clip.
The Mustangs also had a pair of forwards come up a point shy of a double-double. Senior Major Mosser, a South Mountain Community College Baseball commit, finished with nine points on 3-of-5 from deep and 10 rebounds. Junior Jack Chambers matched him with nine points and pulled down 11 rebounds while adding three steals and a block on defense.
Last season, Derek Rollins averaged 19.5 points and 10.2 rebounds for the Mustangs, leaving a big void in production with his graduation. Mosser and Chambers have picked up much of that slack, with Mosser boosting his rebounding average from 4.8 as a junior to 8.5 as a senior while Chambers is tied with Gallatin for the team lead in scoring (12.5 per game) and is leading the team in rebounding (9.3 per game).
“We knew it was going to be kind of a combo effort,” Etzelmiller said. “That was one thing that Derek Rollins did outstanding, he rebounded out of his area. He would go get the ball. You knew that he was going to end with 10 rebounds every night. So the opportunity, there are a lot of rebounds to be had, and we said we’ve been working on it, that Jack, Major, Trelly, and even some of our guards needed to go chase and get some rebounds.”
Trelly Akins, a 6-foot-7 forward, made his season debut on Friday night and chipped in three points, four rebounds and a block in limited minutes. The junior with big upside suffered a hamstring injury in October that sidelined him for the team’s first five games. He’ll play a significant role over the second half of the season as he gets closer to full strength.
“The kid’s been working so hard,” Etzelmiller said. “He’s in limited minutes right now, and we’re trying to do what’s right for him and make sure that he stays safe … He’s been sitting out, and he’s had some time, and he’s been doing all the physical therapy that he can, and he’s working with our training staff. But you can tell what he brings and his length and rebounds and blocked shots, and he got to the basket once today, and he can also shoot it too. So we’re excited to have him back.”
Gallatin, Mosser and Chambers all played significant roles for last year’s 19-7 squad. That wasn’t necessarily the case for the other two starters, seniors Trevor Bailey and Makhi Carodine. Bailey, a 6-foot guard, played in 19 games off the bench, averaging 2.5 points. Carodine, a 6-foot-4 wing, only played in nine games, scoring six total points.
This season, Bailey is averaging 9.5 points while shooting 63.9% from the field including 45% from 3. Carodine is adding 7.2 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. The two seniors bring athleticism and physicality to the Mustang lineup, usually drawing the toughest assignments on defense.
Millard North senior Trevor Bailey looks to drive past Omaha Central junior Evan Rodgers. Photo by Jack Stephens.
“I love these two — all of our seniors — but those two, to stay in the program and be a part of our program, because they could go into a lot of different places, and they could play, they could start in a lot of different areas, and for them to stay and be a part of this, I want the best for them. I want them to have as much success as we can, but they don’t want it for themselves. They want it for our team and our program. I’m very happy with them and where they’re at.”
Millard North sits atop the Class A rankings despite having a blemish on its record because the one loss came outside of the state. The Mustangs traveled down to Kansas City last week for a pair of games, topping Pembroke Hill (Mo.) 66-57 before falling to Oak Park (Mo.) 88-68 in the Noble Classic.
“We saw some great talents, some great teams,” Etzelmiller said. “Oak Park was very skilled, very athletic. They had a big guy, 6-8, 270, but their guards were Division-II, Division-I guards, all of them, and then they ran their stuff really well.”
The Mustangs improved to 4-0 against fellow Class A Nebraska teams on Friday, including a 68-44 rout against Bellevue West during the first week of the season. Since then, Bellevue West has won four straight (including a comeback win over No. 5 Creighton Prep during Friday’s “Christmas in the Cage” game) and has risen to No. 2 in the poll.
Millard North has one more big test waiting before the moratorium as the Mustangs will host No. 4 Lincoln North Star on Tuesday afternoon. The Mustangs have also locked up the No. 1 seed in the Metro Holiday Tournament, set to begin on Dec. 29.
