Basketball Recap: Ardrey Kell Piles Up the Points Against Porter Ridge

Winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Ardrey Kell). They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat the Porter Ridge Pirates 80-53. Given the Knights' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 58th, while the Pirates are ranked 382nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Leading Ardrey Kell to victory were Brett Freeman and Bryceton Thomas. Freeman posted 21 points and five steals, while Thomas dropped a double-double on 16 points and 17 rebounds. With that strong performance, Thomas is now averaging an impressive 9.1 boards per game. Another player making a difference was Matthew Craft, who put up nine points.

Ardrey Kell was working as a unit and finished the game with 17 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Porter Ridge only posted eight assists.

Despite the loss, Porter Ridge still got an impressive performance from Reid Johannes, who dropped a double-double on 22 points and 17 boards. Johannes has been hot recently, having posted eight or more boards the last four times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Ziggy Harris, who made all 5 shots he took to post 13 points.

The win (which was Ardrey Kell's fifth in a row) raised their record to 6-1. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 72.2 points per game. As for Porter Ridge, they dropped their record down to 2-7 with the loss, which was their fourth straight on the road.

Ardrey Kell will take on Ballantyne Ridge in a holiday battle at at 7:30 p.m. on December 20th. Porter Ridge and Olympic will compete for holiday cheer at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.