The Celebration Storm's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Friday after their fourth straight loss. They took a 67-61 hit to the loss column at the hands of North Kissimmee Christian. While losing is never fun, Celebration can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Florida basketball rankings (they are ranked 653rd, while North Kissimmee Christian is ranked 321st).
Several Storm players turned in solid performances, despite ultimately coming up short. Perhaps the best among those players was Ricardo Baro, who scored 18 points along with seven rebounds. Baro continues to roll, besting his previous point total in each of the last three games he's played. Another player making a difference was Kendley Jean, who scored eight points along with 15 rebounds and two steals.
Izaiah Noel continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for North Kissimmee Christian, scoring 24 points along with five rebounds and four steals. Noel is on a roll when it comes to steals, as he's now grabbed two or more in the last six games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Pourchons Morisseau, who scored ten points along with eight rebounds.
Celebration bumped their record down to 3-11 with that defeat, which was their tenth straight on the road. As for North Kissimmee Christian, the win was the sixth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 17-4.
Celebration won't have much time to rest: their next match is against Santa Fe at 1:30 p.m. on January 13th. Santa Fe has been getting the ball to fall more lately as they've increased their point totals each of their last three games. As for North Kissimmee Christian, they will stay at home for another game and welcome Bridge to Independence at 6:00 p.m. on January 16th. Hopefully Bridge to Independence focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 17 on Monday.
