<\/span><\/span>10:00 | <\/strong>If Wednesday’s Northtown showdown between Jordan and Millikan was a race, it would have looked like this\u2014two competitors go neck and neck for the first 75 meters, then one stumbles as the other accelerates into the final stretch. <\/span>When the score was knotted up at 33 after 3 quarters, it was easy to expect another classic\u2014after all, these two teams have already had two incredible finishes this season. <\/span>But Jordan, who were led by Armani Wiley’s 24 points and 8 rebounds, scored 26 points in the final frame to pull ahead and win, 59-42. <\/span>The victory puts Jordan a good way towards cinching up second place, as they’re 6-1 and have only lost to Poly, while Millikan falls to 4-3 in a tie with Wilson for third.<\/span><\/p>\n It really did seem, though, like this game was going to go the stretch\u2014it was 17-15 Jordan at the half, with neither team able to take control. <\/span>The Rams didn’t score in the second quarter until six minutes in, and they committed 10 first-half fouls, 12 turnovers, and went 1-7 from the free throw line, yet still only found themselves down by two. <\/span>They were unable to get the ball inside to Hilary Drinovsky, who had a big height advantage. <\/span>“They were fronting her with deep help,” said Millikan coach Lorene Morgan, “which means someone’s open\u2014but we couldn\u2019t find the open player. <\/span>Then when [Drinovsky] was open in the fourth quarter, we couldn’t find her.”<\/p>\n It was an effective disruption of the Millikan offense\u2014which is why Jordan coach Adara Newidouski was more impressed with her team’s defense down the stretch, than their scoring explosion. <\/span>“I told them, for the first three minutes of the fourth quarter we just need to step it up one level defensively, and we can get a run,” she said. <\/span>“Our offense comes from our defense.” <\/span>Her words proved true, as Jordan went out 12-3, and shot free throws well down the stretch to hang on (Wiley was 6-6 from the line in the fourth quarter).<\/p>\n “With how things have been before this year, we’re trying to make a statement,” said Wiley after the game. <\/span>“With this being for second place\u2014I’m not trying to sound cocky, but after the third quarter we were like, ‘Let’s get this game over.'” <\/span>Wiley was backed up by her sidekick, Danesha Long, who had 18 points, four boards, two steals, and an assist.<\/p>\n Drinovsky was the leader for Millikan with nine points and nine boards; she attempted just nine shots in the game.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" After three quarters it looked like we were headed for a third classic between Jordan and Millikan this season, but the Panthers exploded for 26 points to put it away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-2320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2320"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=2320"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}