PREVIEW: Westside Boys to Take on Tough Millard North Squad

Jaden Taylor and Tristan Alvano|January 24, 2020

Yamilett Ramirez

This Friday, January 24th, the 8-4 Westside Warriors boys basketball team will take on the 12-2 Millard North Mustangs on the road. The Mustangs have played and beaten multiple top ten teams this year including a win against Creighton Prep in the Metro final 71-65. The Warriors are looking to bounce back after a tight overtime loss to Bellevue West this past Tuesday 85-84. 

The Mustangs are led by junior Hunter Sallis, who is averaging about 22 points per game and has scholarship offers from 12 NCAA Division 1 schools. Along with Sallis, Mustangs are led by senior and Stanford University commit Max Murrell who is their big man and is very versatile on the court. Murrell, at 6’9”, averages just over five rebounds a game along with just under 10 points per game. 

Despite the impressive resume this Mustang team has, the Warrior’ aren’t shy of big games against talented teams. Through 12 games, the Warriors have played five of those against ranked opponents. Westside head coach Jim Simons feels that the preparation is no different in this matchup.

“We just played a team with multiple Division 1 recruits on Tuesday and we don’t prepare for them differently. It’s kind of business as usual for us and we will continue to play as tough of a schedule as anyone in the state,” Simons said. “Obviously Millard North is very talented, very long and very athletic. We try to prepare for everyone the same, there are no easy opponents this year.”

This past Tuesday, the Warriors lost a heartbreaker to Bellevue West in overtime 85-84. Senior Carl Brown said he feels that there’s hard work is not the only thing they need to focus on to take down the Mustangs.

“We gotta play hard like we did [against Bellevue West] and not just playing hard but playing hard with attention to detail. I think we’ll have a very good chance of beating them just like we did [against Bellevue West].”

Tip-off will be at 7:15 at Millard North High School and the Warriors will look to take down one of the state’s top teams. The game can be followed on the Westside Wired twitter account.