Harvest Christian Academy comes up short despite Elijah Cleary's dominant performance

By Team Reports Jan 14, 2024, 1:32pm

Recap: Harvest Christian Academy Saints vs. Faustina Academy Falcons

The Harvest Christian Academy Saints's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Tuesday after their sixth straight loss. They were just a bucket shy of victory and fell 65-64 to Faustina Academy. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.

Despite the loss, Harvest Christian Academy still got an impressive performance from Elijah Cleary, who scored 40 points. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Cleary has scored all season. Andy Cumbest was another key contributor, scoring eight points.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Faustina Academy to victory, but perhaps none more so than Ben Nelson, who scored 24 points along with eight rebounds and five steals. That makes it five consecutive games in which Nelson has scored at least a third of Faustina Academy's points. The team also got some help courtesy of CJ Agu, who scored 14 points along with seven rebounds and three steals.

Harvest Christian Academy bumped their record down to 5-7 with that defeat, which was their third straight on the road. That rough patch can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 50.3 points per game. As for Faustina Academy, the win (which was their third in a row) raised their record to 8-3.

Harvest Christian Academy will be playing at home against Lakewood Presbyterian at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Lakewood Presbyterian is coming into the match on a three-game losing streak. As for Faustina Academy, they will head out on the road to challenge Flint Academy at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Flint Academy focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 20 last Monday.