Basketball Recap: Nicolo Passalacqua Leads a Balanced Attack to Beat New Hope Academy National

It was a proper cat-fight when The Carmel School duked it out withNew Hope Academy National on Wednesday. The Carmel School Wildcats secured a 74-69 W over the New Hope Academy National Tigers.

The Carmel School got their win on the backs of several key players, but it was Nicolo Passalacqua out in front who almost dropped a double-double on 19 points and nine rebounds. Passalacqua has been hot, having posted 17 or more points the last six times he's played. Jordan Watson was another key player, going 7 of 14 en route to 18 points.

Despite the loss, New Hope Academy National still got an impressive performance from Haki Muhammed II, who went 11 for 25 on his way to 32 points. That was a full 46.4% of New Hope Academy National's points, marking the fifth time in a row he's posted more than a third of the team's points. Another player making a difference was Uriah Augare-Deal, who put up nine points and five boards.

The Carmel School is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six contests, which provided a massive bump to their 12-8 record this season. A key ingredient in that success has been their performance when it comes to three-point shooting accuracy: their three-point shooting accuracy was 30.6% in those games and 26.6% outside of them. As for New Hope Academy National, they have been struggling recently as they've lost five of their last six games, which put a noticeable dent in their 14-16 record this season.

The Carmel School wasted no time getting back out on the court and has already played their next matchup, a 74-66 victory against Cristo Rey on the 1st. As for New Hope Academy National, they also didn't take long to hit the court again: they've already played their next contest, a 72-66 defeat against Evergreen Christian on the 1st.