The Croatan Cougars put another one in the bag on Thursday to keep their perfect season alive. They secured a 56-50 W over New Bern. Despite the win, that was the fewest points Croatan has scored all season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Croatan to victory, but perhaps none more so than Matthew Woody, who scored nine points along with 19 rebounds. Woody continues to roll, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Trey Jones, who scored 15 points.
New Bern lost despite a true team effort on the offense, the best among them being Xavier Cox, who scored ten points. Cox hasn't dropped below two steals for five straight games. Alex Martinez was another key contributor, scoring ten points.
Croatan pushed their record up to 12-0 with that victory, which was their fifth straight at home. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 80.8 points per game. As for New Bern, their defeat dropped their record down to 7-4.
Croatan will have some time to savor their victory since their next game is a little ways off: they'll take on Ashley at 8:30 p.m. on January 3rd. Ashley 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 378th, while Croatan is ranked 87th). New Bern and Coastal Christian will face off at 7:00 p.m. on December 27, 2023 without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Coastal Christian is strutting with some offensive muscle, as they've averaged 52.6 points per game.
