St. Pauls unfortunately couldn't capitalize on their home-court advantage in their season opener. They took a 64-57 hit to the loss column at the hands of the Hoke County Bucks on Tuesday. The Bulldogs were down 56-36 at the end of the third quarter, which was just too much to recover from.
Despite the loss, St. Pauls still got an impressive performance from Brandon Baldwin, who shot 55% from the field on his way to 16 points and three steals. Jakhi Purcell was another key player, putting up 11 points and three steals.
Hoke County's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Machai Brown led the charge by posting 11 points and five assists. Those five assists gave Brown a new career-high. Another player making a difference was Gabriel McLeod, who went 5-for-11 to rack up 10 points in addition to five rebounds and five steals.
The victory was the third in a row for Hoke County, bringing their record up to 3-0.
St. Pauls wasted no time getting back out on the court and has already played their next contest, a 50-47 defeat against Scotland on the 2nd. As for Hoke County, they also didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next matchup, a 68-43 loss against Trinity Christian on the 28th.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
