There's no place like home for the Concord Academy Eagles, who bounced back after a tough loss on the road on Tuesday. They walked away with an 81-69 win over Gaston Day on Friday. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Leading Concord Academy to victory were Sean Birmingham and Ian Howard. Birmingham scored 18 points along with seven rebounds, while Howard scored 23 points. The match was Birmingham's fifth in a row with at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jake Benham, who scored 11 points along with six assists and five rebounds.
Despite the loss, Gaston Day saw an underclassman step up: Deshawn Coulter scored 26 points. Those 26 points set a new season-high mark for him. Gavin Fields was another key contributor, scoring 13 points.
Concord Academy's victory was their seventh straight at home dating back to last season, which pushed their record up to 7-5. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 71.9 points per game. As for Gaston Day, their loss dropped their record down to 8-5.
Concord Academy won't have much time to rest: their next contest is against Hammond at 2:30 p.m. on December 9th. Gaston Day will be home for the holidays to greet Westchester Country Day at 6:00 p.m. on Friday. Westchester Country Day 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 373rd, while Gaston Day is ranked 96th).
