Winning is just a little bit easier when you work as a team to rack up nine more assists than your opponent, a fact the Apex Friendship Patriots proved on Friday. They were the clear victor by a 54-32 margin over East Chapel Hill. Given Apex Friendship's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 71st, while East Chapel Hill is ranked 219th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Apex Friendship was led to victory by Ailani Collazo and Jasmine Nivar. Collazo scored 8 points, while Nivar scored 13 points along with 6 rebounds. The match was Nivar's third in a row with at least ten points. Emma Cyrus was another key contributor, scoring 6 points.
Despite the loss, East Chapel Hill still got an impressive performance from Abigail Stone, who scored 15 points along with 3 steals. Stone scored a full 46.9% of East Chapel Hill's points, the fifth time in a row she's earned more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Stephanie Proa?o, who scored 3 points along with 5 rebounds and 5 steals.
Apex Friendship now has a winning record of 2-1. As for East Chapel Hill, they are on a three-game losing streak that has dropped them down to 2-4.
Both squads are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. Apex Friendship will take on South Central at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday. As for East Chapel Hill, they will be playing at home against Southern Alamance at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
