Basketball Recap: Kingston Clifton's Big Game Can't Quite Lead New Garden Friends over Victory Christian Center

New Garden Friends lost against Victory Christian Center back in January and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. The New Garden Friends Bears lost 50-30 to the Victory Christian Center Kings. Having soared to a lofty 59 points in the game before, the Bears couldn't push the score so high this time.

Several Bears players turned in solid performances despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Kingston Clifton, who posted nine points. Curtis Russell was another key player, putting up six points.

Justyn Whitfield was his usual excellent self, going 8 of 14 on his way to 17 points and three steals for Victory Christian Center. That makes it three consecutive games in which Whitfield has scored at least a third of Victory Christian Center's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Carlos Marshall, who put up seven points and nine rebounds.

New Garden Friends has been struggling recently as they've lost four of their last five games, which put a noticeable dent in their 3-5 record this season. As for Victory Christian Center, the win got them back to even at 6-6.

New Garden Friends wasted no time getting back out on the court and has already played their next matchup, an 84-67 defeat against Calvary Day School on the 17th. Victory Christian Center will take on Lake Norman Christian in a holiday battle at at 7:00 p.m. on December 20th. Lake Norman Christian knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past 13 contests -- so hopefully Victory Christian Center likes a good challenge.