There's no place like home for the Altamonte Christian Eagles, who bounced back after a tough loss on the road on Tuesday. They pulled ahead with a 75-74 photo finish over Pine Ridge. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Altamonte Christian was led to victory by Ashton Billings and Ryan Almeda . Billings scored 20 points along with eight rebounds, while Almeda scored 22 points along with three steals. The game was Billings' eighth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Vincent Lee, who scored 11 points along with seven rebounds and three blocks.
Despite the loss, Pine Ridge still got an impressive performance from Elijah Laird, who scored 29 points along with six rebounds. Laird scored a full 39.2% of Pine Ridge's points, the fifth time in a row he's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Arvin Urena, who scored 13 points along with three steals.
Even though they lost, Pine Ridge were working as a unit and finished the game with 18 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Altamonte Christian only racked up 11 assists.
Altamonte Christian now has a winning record of 7-6. As for Pine Ridge, their defeat dropped their record down to 5-7.
Altamonte Christian won't have much time to rest: their next match is against Seffner Christian at 1:15 p.m. on January 6th. Seffner Christian knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with flashy point totals in its past three matchups -- so hopefully Altamonte Christian likes a good challenge. As for Pine Ridge, they will head out on the road to face off against DeLand at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
