Nationally ranked Myers Park facing a pair of weekend showdowns with Olympic, Carmel

Scott Taylor didn’t really think a lot about it when schedules were finalized for this high school basketball season.

Taylor, coach of the Myers Park boys’ basketball team, knew his squad would have a conference game on Jan. 13 and would play the next night in the Phenom MLK Classic, probably against a good private school team.

What he didn’t know last fall was that his Mustangs, ranked No. 1 among 4A schools in this week’s Charlotte Observer Sweet 16 poll, would face an undefeated and seventh-ranked Olympic team in a SoMeck 4A Conference game on Friday … and then square off with defending private school state champ (and top-rated, among private schools) Carmel Christian just 24 hours later.

“Yeah, we didn’t realize all of that at the time,” Taylor said with a laugh earlier this week. “It turned out to be kind of interesting, huh?”

On Friday night, Taylor’s Mustangs (12-3) -- who moved back into the MaxPreps’ top 25 national rankings this week -- host Olympic (17-0). Each team is 5-0 in the conference.

Then at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Myers Park faces host Carmel Christian (20-3) in the nightcap of the MLK Classic.

It puts the Mustangs in an interesting situation.

They want badly to beat Olympic, because it’s a pathway to the conference championship and a high seed in the state playoffs that begin later next month.

But Saturday’s game – matching the No. 1 public school team against the No. 1 private school squad in North Carolina – is also a big deal.

“There’s obviously a priority to winning our conference, so it’s first things first,” Taylor said. “If we win (Friday), we put ourselves in a position where people have to chase us.”

Friday’s game marks the end of the first half of the SoMeck 4A season.

“But we really look forward to facing Carmel Christian,” he added. “These games – public schools against the private schools – are a big topic of conversation when people in the community get together.”

Taylor anticipates two very different types of games for his team.

“Olympic plays solid defense,” he said. “They try to force you into turnovers, and then they turn those turnovers into quick baskets at the other end.”

That’s exactly what the Trojans did Tuesday night after falling behind Ardrey Kell 13-4 in the early going. A flurry of Ardrey Kell turnovers enabled Olympic to put together several big runs on route to a 65-47 victory.

Saturday, Taylor said, will be strength versus strength.

“Carmel is a lot like us,” he said. “They are strong, so it will be a physical game. A lot of it will be half-court basketball.”

Carmel Christian’s Jaeden Mustaf and Bryce Cash are likely to battle Elijah Strong, Sir Mohammed and Sadiq White on the inside.

Taylor said the back-to-back games will help prepare his team for the state playoffs next month.

“In the playoffs, you’ve got a game every other night, and there’s little time for preparation,” he said. “And you often face teams with different styles. This weekend will help us, I think.”

Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle