The Pine Forest Trojans pushed their score all the way to 71 on Saturday, but even that wasn't enough to win. They took a 76-71 hit to the loss column at the hands of Freedom Christian Academy. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their last game last Thursday (57), Pine Forest still had to take the loss.
Loss or not, Pine Forest got some senior leadership from Nehemiah Mcdonald who scored 22 points along with six rebounds and two steals and Dwayne Johnson who scored 22 points along with four steals. As a matter of fact, that's the most points Johnson has scored all season. The team also got some help courtesy of Tristan Lyons, who scored six points.
Even though they lost, Pine Forest were working as a unit and finished the game with 17 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Freedom Christian Academy to victory, but perhaps none more so than Karsten Swinney, who scored 25 points along with five assists and five rebounds. Swinney hasn't dropped below two steals for 13 straight games. Another player making a difference was Haidyn Bell, who dropped a double-double on 21 points and 11 rebounds.
Pine Forest has been struggling recently, as they've lost three of their last four matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 7-6 record this season. As for Freedom Christian Academy, the victory makes it two in a row for them and bumps their season record up to 9-10.
Both squads will have to hit the road in their upcoming games. Pine Forest on the road again on Tuesday and play against Harnett Central at 7:30 p.m. on January 16th. Hopefully Harnett Central focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 11 last Thursday. As for Freedom Christian Academy, they will head out on the road to square off against Fayetteville Christian at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Fayetteville Christian is on a three-game streak of home losses, Freedom Christian Academy a five-game streak of away losses (dating back to last season), but someone's luck is about to change.
