Unbeaten Spartans to Hit the Road for Battle with Patriots
Basketball will return to the south side of Millard for its eighth week of regular season action on Saturday when the top-ranked Lincoln East Spartans come to town. The Spartans, with a Class A-best 16-0 record, are looking forward to their first Metro road test against the Millard South Patriots.
“They had a couple of really tough games on the road that they won in the last seconds against Kearney and Grand Island,” said Ron Powell, preps reporter at the Lincoln Journal Star. “They’ve been pushed on the road, and they’ve handled that pressure.”
Lincoln East has emerged as one of the best defensive teams in Nebraska by giving up 47.7 points per game. The defensive skill of East, however, will be pushed to the limit by a Millard South offense that average 66.2 points per game. Their offense has slowed down of late as Tyrell Carroll has been out with injury, but sources say he should be a go for the game on Saturday. Regardless, Powell doesn’t think Spartans fans should be worried.
“The thing about East is they just play so well together,” Powell said. “[They’re] a very solid defensive team, too. They aren’t giving up a lot of points.”
Spartan offense runs on the scoring plays of two NCAA commits: Jordan Janssen and Sam Griesel. The pair average a combined 32.8 points, 14.8 rebounds, and 2.4 steals per game coming into the weekend. Jeff Motz, broadcaster and reporter at Lincoln Prep Sports, believes Janssen and Griesel aren’t their only powerful assets.
“You’ve got four of your five starters on that team that on any given night, if someone needs to pick up the slack, they’ll score double digits,” Motz said.
A name that stood out to both Powell and Motz, besides Janssen and Griesel, was Hayden Barrett. Though he puts up slim numbers on the scoreboard, Powell said that Barrett sets the squad up for success.
“Their third guy they have inside that starts is Hayden Barrett,” Powell said. “He does all the ‘dirty work.' He sets the picks, gets a lot of rebounds, and plays physical defense.”
The unscathed Spartans will roll into eighth-ranked Millard South on Saturday, January 27, 2018, at 7:15 p.m.
Check Twitter.com/OmahaHSHoops for live updates from the gym.