Basketball Recap: Brennan Dokes' Big Game Can't Quite Lead Pike over North Central

After flying high against Roncalli last Wednesday, Pike came back down to earth. The Pike Red Devils took a 76-63 hit to the loss column at the hands of the North Central Panthers on Friday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game last Wednesday (57), the Red Devils still had to take the loss.

Pike lost despite a true team effort on offense, the best among them being Brennan Dokes, who made all 6 shots he took to post 13 points and five boards. Collin Washington was another key player, putting up 12 points.

It was another big night for Papi Rivera, who went 8 for 16 on his way to 28 points and four steals for North Central. Rivera's evening made it three games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jeremiah Bellamy, who went 6 of 9 en route to 15 points and eight rebounds.

Pike has been struggling recently as they've lost six of their last eight contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 6-6 record this season. As for North Central, the win was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 8-5.

Pike has already played their next match, a 62-34 victory against Indianapolis Shortridge on the 21st. As for North Central, they also wasted no time getting back out on the court and have already played their next game, a 48-44 win against Ben Davis on the 18th.