Preview: Grace Academy Knights vs. Calvary Christian Academy
Two dominant in Peter Ciardiello and Levi Carrington are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Grace Academy Knights will head out on the road to square off against Calvary Christian Academy at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Grace Academy focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up nine on Friday.
Grace Academy has been a dominant force so far, but they're in the middle of a mini-slump at the moment. They took a 69-65 hit to the loss column at the hands of GVCS Broadfording. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their last game on Tuesday (59), Grace Academy still had to take the loss.
Grace Academy's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Ciardiello, who dropped a double-double on 22 points and 11 rebounds, and Carson Feeser who scored 25 points along with two steals. That was a full 33.8% of Grace Academy's points, marking the fifth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Ronan Casey, who scored ten points.
Meanwhile, Calvary Christian Academy came up short against Paw Paw last Monday and fell 57-48. While losing is never fun, Calvary Christian Academy can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps's basketball rankings in their respective home states (they are ranked 242nd in Maryland, while Paw Paw is ranked 63rd in West Virginia).
Grace Academy's loss dropped their record down to 7-3. As for Calvary Christian Academy, their loss dropped their record down to 3-6.
Everything came up roses for Grace Academy against Calvary Christian Academy in their previous matchup back in December of 2023 as the team secured a 61-24 victory. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Carrington, who scored 13 points along with eight rebounds and two steals. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Grace Academy still be able to contain him? There's only one way to find out.