The St. Joseph Spartans suffered their biggest loss since December 12, 2023 on Wednesday. They suffered a rough 55-32 defeat at the hands of Sewickley Academy. While losing is never fun, St. Joseph can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Pennsylvania basketball rankings (they are ranked 706th, while Sewickley Academy is ranked 343rd).
When it comes to explaining why St. Joseph lost, one person who can't be blamed is Gabe Maltese. Despite the final result, he scored 19 points along with two steals. That was a full 59.4% of St. Joseph's points, marking the fourth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. The team also got some help courtesy of Cole Spencer, who scored four points along with six rebounds.
St. Joseph's loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 3-14. As for Sewickley Academy, the win was the third in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 10-5.
St. Joseph and Imani Christian Academy will face off at 7:30 p.m. on January 30th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. That game will pit two of the most dominant guards against one another: Nate Brazil and Maltese. As for Sewickley Academy, they will be playing at home against Northgate at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Northgate has been dominant on offense recently, as they've racked up an incredible 283 points over their last four contests.
