Basketball Recap: Grafton Takes a Loss

Grafton was the 73-70 winner over New Kent when they last played one another back in January, but their luck changed this time around. The Grafton Clippers fell to the New Kent Trojans 67-62. While losing is never fun, the Clippers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Virginia basketball rankings (they are ranked 179th, while the Trojans are ranked 19th).

Despite the loss, Grafton still got an impressive performance from Jakobe Brownlee, who went 9 of 11 on his way to 24 points. Brownlee's evening made it six games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Chase Santiago, who went 6 for 12 on his way to 14 points.

New Kent's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Kyle Diggs led the charge by putting up 17 points in addition to six assists and six boards. Diggs has been hot recently, having also posted two or more steals the last four times he's played. Another player making a difference was Will Ross, who went 5 of 12 on his way to 16 points and five steals.

Grafton's record now sits at 2-4. As for New Kent, the victory keeps them at an undefeated 7-0.

Grafton didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next contest, an 80-63 loss against Heritage on the 21st. New Kent and Thomas Jefferson will round out the year against one another at at 7:15 p.m. on December 27th. One thing working in New Kent's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points every time they've taken the court this season.