Basketball Recap: Christian Peaks' Big Game Can't Quite Lead Jacksonville over New Bern

Jacksonville was the 63-62 winner over New Bern when they last played one another last Tuesday, but their luck changed this time around. The Jacksonville Cardinals took a 79-70 hit to the loss column at the hands of the New Bern Bears on Wednesday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Tuesday (68), the Cardinals still had to take the loss.

Christian Peaks

Points (Career)

02/05/25 @ New Bern	19
12/30/24 vs White Oak	11
01/07/25 vs Havelock	10
02/04/25 @ Havelock	9
01/29/25 @ Northside - Jacksonville	8

Jacksonville's loss came despite a true team effort with many players turning in solid performances. Perhaps the best among them was Christian Peaks, who went 8 of 12 en route to 19 points and eight rebounds. The dominant performance gave Peaks a new career-high in points. The team also got some help courtesy of Carson Leifheit, who went 7 for 16 on his way to 19 points.

New Bern was led to victory by Amari Reddick and Jussan Wiggins. Reddick dropped a double-double on 22 points and 12 boards, while Wiggins went 9 of 14 to rack up 22 points and three steals. With that strong performance, Wiggins is now averaging an impressive 15.3 points per game. Torrian Staten was another key player, putting up 14 points and five rebounds.

This is the second loss in a row for Jacksonville and nudges their season record down to 6-9. That patch can't be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 69.0 points over those games. As for New Bern, their win was their fifth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 11-7.

Jacksonville didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next match, a 70-61 victory against D.H. Conley on the 7th. As for New Bern, they also wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next contest, an 84-41 defeat against J.H. Rose on the 7th.