After a string of ten wins, the Chapel Hill Tigers's good fortune finally ran out on Wednesday. They opened the new year with a less-than-successful 64-59 loss to they. The loss unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for them in their matchups with Cardinal Gibbons: they've now lost three in a row.
When it comes to explaining why Chapel Hill lost, one person who can't be blamed is Franklin Johnson. Despite the final result, he scored 20 points along with five rebounds and three steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Johnson has scored all season. Another player making a difference was Alex Smollen, who scored six points along with two steals.
Leading Cardinal Gibbons to victory were Trey Jones and Aiden Smalls. Jones dropped a double-double on 20 points and ten rebounds, while Smalls scored 25 points along with seven rebounds and two steals. Smalls has been hot recently, having posted 15 or more points the last four times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Ronny Turner, who scored three points along with nine rebounds.
Chapel Hill's loss ended a six-game streak of away wins and brought them to 11-2. As for Cardinal Gibbons, their win bumped their record up to 7-4.
Chapel Hill will be playing in front of their home fans against Heritage at 7:00 p.m. on Friday. Hopefully Heritage focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 11 last Friday. As for Cardinal Gibbons, they will face off against North Raleigh Christian Academy at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday. North Raleigh Christian Academy will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps North Carolina Rankings (they are ranked 229th, while Cardinal Gibbons is ranked 83rd).
