WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. — Memphis has a history of great basketball and great games. On Friday night, that meant a matchup between the Rancho Christian Eagles from Temecula, CA (southeast of Los Angeles) and Memphis East in a non-conference game. The Eagles are ranked 13th nationally in the latest Maxpreps.com rankings.
But what made this a nationally televised game on ESPN2 was the much-hyped tipoff between the top college prospects of the next two years – James Wiseman and Evan Mobley, each ranked as the No. 1 high school player in 2019 and 2020 respectively.
They were not the only talented players on the court. Mobley’s older brother, Isaiah Mobley is set to attend USC next fall, and Dominick Harris has committed to Gonzaga. Wiseman and his East High teammate Malcolm Dandridge have both committed to the University of Memphis.
Penny Hardaway, who coached both Wiseman and Dandridge at East before taking the reins at UofM, had a front-row seat for the battle of number ones.
The Rancho Christian Eagles (15-1) defeated the East Mustangs 66-56 (9-4) in a game played at West Memphis High School. The battle of the big men lived up to the hype. A dunk by Wiseman even made the ESPN Sportscenter top ten plays of the day.
East got off to a very slow start, only scoring their first basket more than halfway through the first quarter. That helped Rancho Christian build an 11-point first quarter lead.
“Simply turnovers,” said East High Coach Jevonte Holmes, about the dismal first quarter. “We had three turnovers to start the game. You can’t go down to such a good team 6-0. We made our runs. Every possession counts”.
But the Mustangs were able to bounce back. Dandridge reeled off eight points to get the Mustangs back into the game.
“That is the type of team we are,” Dandridge said after the game. “We want to get hit first and then we adjust to our opponent, but sometimes it is too late to adjust and that is what happened today.”
The Mustangs showed great energy in the second period and even took the lead on a powerful Wiseman dunk that got everyone out of their seats. The Mobleys were not moved by the explosive dunk and continued to protect the rim and rejected and altered many shots by the Mustangs’ shooters. The Eagles took a 33-27 lead into halftime.
In the third quarter, Dandridge and Wiseman combined to score 10 of East’s 17 points in the third quarter. Evan Mobley was shut out offensively in the third quarter and Isaiah only scored four points. The Eagles took a 45-44 lead into the fourth quarter.
The depth and experience of the Eagles dominated the fourth period. The Eagles outscored the Mustangs 20-8 to put the game out of reach. Rancho Christian’s back court changed the tempo of the game and forced East out of what they had been doing the entire game.
Holmes stressed to his team that he needed his guards to outplay the Eagles guards because he felt the big men would cancel one another out. He was correct. Wiseman had 17 points and Dandridge had 19 points.
“If you look at the numbers, the bigs were playing even it was all about the perimeter game,” Holmes said. “Harris got loose on us and the other guys started to make some shots. They beat us on the perimeter.”
“That was a great team,” Dandridge added. “We just didn’t match their energy. We settled.”
Evan Mobley had 13 points and his older brother Isiah had 15 points. The difference in the game the effectiveness of Harris. Harris had a game-high of 27 points.
Wiseman said, “They are a good team, but we did not match their efforts on both ends of the court”.
And as for Evan Mobley, his counterpart star player?
“It was a fun matchup,” Wisemand said. “He is a great young talent. He and I have similar games”.
East will finish playing its national schedule when they leave Memphis on January 17, to travel to Springfield, MO to play in the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions. The tournament will feature some of the best high school players in the country. East will play Parkview (MO) at 4:30 pm on January 17.
