Senior guard, Monté Harris has made the adjustment from scoring 2.4 points per game last season, to being a key cog in the Wildcats 21-1 start to the season as their sixth man. On three occassions this season, he has been called on to start. On the flip side, he has also had to deal with time away from the court with injury, regardless of the situation, he has made the most of the situation at hand, and none have been as big as his performance in the team's regular season finale vs. Sanderson on Friday night.
Harris, who is playing his second season at Millbrook having started his high school career back home in Warner Robins, Georgia earned his third career start as part of Senior Night festivities vs. the Spartans. What made Friday night extra special for Monté, and fellow teammate Trejon Jacob, who is in his second season at Millbrook having played back in Sugarland, Texas was the fact that they would get to play in front of their fathers who made the trip from out of state to witness that night's action.
Monté was playing in front of his father for the first time as a Wildcat and he made sure to put on a show throughout. He opened the scoring for Millbrook with a long corner three, which would be a very common occurance in the scorebook. He filled up his stat line in the second quarter with two more three's and a pair of floaters from the right block. As Millbrook entered halftime with a 46-31 lead, Harris had already tied his career high of 13 points. Jacob was not far behind with 12 at the break, and Jordan Whitfield's two first quarter three's paired with Faison Brock's three first half scores had them at 6 apiece heading into the locker room.
Brock made his presence felt in the third quarter. The Spartan defense had no answer for the 6'6 forward as he scored 8 points in the stanza en route to a 17 point night that included his second three point make of the season. John Burwell who would finish with 9 points and 7 assists, along with Trejon Jacob who finished with 15 points wrapped up their offensive outputs in the third quarter with Millbrook easily ahead, 73-42.
The final two minutes of the third saw Monté Harris set a new career high with a free throw make, and he added on to it with two more three's to bring his game total to a career high five... he wasn't done there. The fourth quarter started with three consecutive baskets from Rashad George who finished with 10 points on the night. Then Harris caught fire once again as he followed a made layup with another corner three, then he downed a right wing from eight feet behind the arc to bring the crowd to their feet. With the whole gym chanting his name, Harris got one more one-on-one matchup with a Sanderson defender on the right wing, he stared him down, dribbled between the legs twice, stepped back on a hesitation move to create space, and downed his eighth three pointer of the night to give Millbrook a 97-61 lead with 8.7 seconds left in the game.
His eighth and final three would put him at a career high 31 points, and it would make him the 13th player in Millbrook Basketball history to score over 30 points in a game, the first to do so since Chris Clemons set the school record with 41 points vs. Knightdale on March 3rd, 2015. Harris also put himself on another prestigious list with Clemons has he tied the 2015 alum for the most three pointers made in a single game with eight. Clemons did so on December 6th, 2015 vs Trinity Christian School.
With the 97-62 victory, Millbrook wraps up the regular season 22-1, 13-1 in the Cap-8 Conference. For a fifth straight season, they clinched the regular season conference championship, and they are the #1 seed for the 2016 Cap-8 Conference Tournament which is set to begin on Tuesday at home vs. Wakefield for Round 1 at 7:30 PM. Rounds 2 and 3 are slated for 5:30, and 7:30 respectively at Broughton High School. For more information, follow us on Twitter at @MillbrookMBB.