Basketball Recap: Jemell Smith's Big Game Can't Quite Lead Cristo Rey over the Carmel School

Cristo Rey lost against The Carmel School back in January and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Saturday. The Cristo Rey Royals took a 76-66 hit to the loss column at the hands of The Carmel School Wildcats. While losing is never fun, the Royals can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 340th, while the Wildcats are ranked 99th).

Several Royals players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Jemell Smith, who posted 19 points. Another player making a difference was Jab Scott, who put up 16 points.

Leading The Carmel School to victory were Jordan Watson and Jerome Hill. Watson went 7 of 14 on his way to 19 points and three steals, while Hill went 7 for 9 en route to 16 points. Watson's afternoon made it four games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Nicolo Passalacqua, who went 5 for 12 on his way to 11 points and five boards.

Cristo Rey's record now sits at 1-16. As for The Carmel School, they are on a roll lately: they've won six of their last seven games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-8 record this season.

Cristo Rey will be playing in front of their home fans against Life Christian Academy at 7:15 p.m. on Thursday. Cristo Rey is facing Life Christian Academy at the right time seeing as Life Christian Academy is stuck on an eight-game losing streak. The Carmel School has already played their next contest (against Veritas Collegiate Academy), but no score has been uploaded at the time of writing.