The Grace Christian Crusaders will head out on the road to face off against Freedom Christian Academy at 6:30 p.m. on Friday. Keep an eye on the score for this one: the two teams posted some lofty point totals in their previous games.
Grace Christian unfortunately witnessed the end of their three-game winning streak on Tuesday. The match between Grace Christian and The Burlington School wasn't particularly close, with Grace Christian falling 79-61. While losing is never fun, Grace Christian can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 279th, while The Burlington School is ranked fifth).
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Nate Jones, who scored 19 points. The match was his fourth in a row with at least ten points. Matt Foster was another key contributor, scoring 17 points.
Meanwhile, Freedom Christian Academy came up short against Berean Baptist Academy on Tuesday and fell 71-63. Despite running the score up even higher than they did on Friday (58), Freedom Christian Academy still had to take the loss.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the most dominant came from Karsten Swinney, who scored 26 points along with six assists and three steals. He has been hot recently, having posted two or more steals the last eight times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Haidyn Bell, who scored 16 points along with seven rebounds and five assists.
Grace Christian's defeat dropped their record down to 5-7. As for Freedom Christian Academy, their defeat was their fourth straight on the road dating back to last season, which bumped their record down to 7-7.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Grace Christian have been smashing the glass this season, having only averaged 27.4 rebounds per game. It's a different story for Freedom Christian Academy, though, as they've been averaging only 28.5 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Everything went Grace Christian's way against Freedom Christian Academy in their previous meeting back in December of 2022 as Grace Christian made off with a 76-51 win. One of the biggest obstacles trying to stand in the way of that victory was Freedom Christian Academy's Cortez Moore , who scored 18 points. Now that he won't be playing on Friday, will it be that much easier for Grace Christian to walk away with another win? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
