Basketball Recap: Darrell Dean Jr.'s Big Game Can't Quite Lead Concord over Columbia Central

Concord lost against Columbia Central back in December of 2022 and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. The Concord Yellowjackets took a 60-55 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Columbia Central Golden Eagles. While losing is never fun, the Yellowjackets can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Michigan basketball rankings (they are ranked 333rd, while the Golden Eagles are ranked 157th).

Concord lost despite a true team effort on offense, the best among them being Darrell Dean Jr., who went 7 of 11 on his way to 20 points along with five rebounds and three steals. Those 20 points gave Dean Jr. a new career-high. The team also got some help courtesy of Connor Stevens, who almost dropped a double-double on 14 points and nine boards.

This is the second loss in a row for Concord and nudges their season record down to 5-4. As for Columbia Central, the victory was the fourth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 6-1.

Concord didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next matchup, a 41-40 defeat against Gull Lake on the 4th. As for Columbia Central, they will have some time to savor their win since their next game is a little ways off: they'll take on Tecumseh at 7:00 p.m. on January 7th. Tecumseh has been dominant on offense recently, having racked up an incredible 197 points over their last three contests.