It’s been a rough Christmas break for the top-ranked Lexington High School boys’ basketball team.

The Wildcats entered the Chick-Fil-A Classic tournament having lost three of their past four holiday tournament games. Making things even more challenging was Lexington’s opening round opponent in nationally-ranked Columbus High School out of Miami, Fla.

The defending Class 7A Florida High School champions sport the nation’s top sophomore in forward Cameron Boozer and younger brother Cayden. The Explorers also looked to bounce back from seeing their eight-game winning streak snapped by Imhotep Charter a week earlier.

Led by a double-double effort by the older Boozer and stymied by a 0-19 shooting effort to open the game, the Wildcats fell 84-44 for their third straight loss.

Cameron Boozer scored 23 points and grabbed 16 rebounds and Cayden had 14 points and seven assists for Columbus (9-2). Benny Fragela had 12 points and Garyn Bess added 11 points for the Explorers, who opened the game with a 14-0 run.

Cam Scott had 12 points to lead Lexington, which fell behind 19-1 in the first quarter. A free throw by Scott was the lone point scored for the Wildcats through the first 11:47 of the opening half.

A layup by Montrell Byrd with 4:43 left in the second quarter was the first field goal of the game for Lexington. It closed out the first half with an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 35-11 at halftime.

While the Wildcats were just 1-14 on three-pointers, Columbus hit three during an 11-2 run to open second half. Its lead stretched as high as 46 points midway in the fourth quarter.

Columbus will face John Marshall (Va.) in the 3:50 p.m. semifinal on Dec. 29.

Despite the lopsided loss, Lexington head coach Elliott Pope remained focus on the bigger picture ahead for his team which is region play and beyond.

“Playing a Top five team in the country. It is what it is,” he said. “That helps us get better for Dutch Fork, for River Bluff, for White Knoll and Chapin. That's the goal of this. It's not necessarily, you know, obviously helping these guys get exposure in front of college coaches is important, but at the end of the day, the way that the playoffs are set up in the state is we have an eight-game season that starts in 10 days. So that's what we're concerned about. You know, a lot of coach speak, but is what it is. We’ve got to get prepared for the eight games in region.”

Lexington (6-5) returns to action against Greensboro Day (N.C.) in a 9:10 a.m. consolation game.

Night two concluded with the three-point shooting and slam dunk contests. Cardinal Newman’s Jordan Frazier beat out John Marshall Jayem’s Jason Rivera in a tiebreaker to crown a Palmetto State three-point shooting champion for the second straight year and Calvary Christian Academy’s Carl Cherenfiant won the slam dunk event.

American Bracket

John Marshall (Va.) 65, Greensboro Day (N.C.) 53

Damon Thompson scored 31 points and Jason Rivera had 12 points, five rebounds and five steals to lead the Justices.

Jaydon Young had 19 points and 12 rebounds for the Bengals.

National Bracket

The Rock School (Fla.) 73, Hillcrest Prep (Ariz.) 55

The Rock School was truly “cooking” from behind the arc.

It connected on 10 three-pointers and had four players score in double figures to advance to the semifinal. Ryan Jones had 19 points, Evan Sterck scored 16, Clarence Massamba added 14 and Austin Leslie finished with 12.

Hillcrest had just six players and an assistant coach on the bench. The other half of the team and head coach Marcus Gantt were unable to attend due to flight cancellations with Southwest Airlines.

Tyshawn Bridges led Hillcrest with 24 points and Aiden Sherrell had 17.

Calvary Christian Academy 60, Southern California Academy 46

Carl Cherenfiant scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Jaylen Curry had 14 points and Shon Abaev and Ethan Lathan each had 10 points in the victory.

Drew Fielder had 14 points and Jahseen Felton had 10 points for Southern California Academy.

Huntington Prep 67, Oak Hill Academy 54

Del Jones scored 20 points and Maki and Larry Johnson each had 14 for Huntington Prep to advance to the semifinals.

Drayton Jones had 14 points and 10 rebounds in the loss.

IMG Academy 77, Providence Day 43

Amier Ali scored 15 points and Jamie Kaiser Jr., Jacobi Hutchinson and Bryson Tucker all had 12 points in the victory.

Riley Allenspach had a game-high 22 points for Providence Day.

Carolina Challenge

Hartsville 53, Charlotte Christian Day 36

Kameron Forman scored 18 points for the Red Foxes, who limited John Lash to 13 points after his 50-point outburst on Day One.

Cardinal Newman 83, Seaforth (N.C) 55

Jordan Frazier scored 27 points and Evan Carter had 21 for the Cardinals.

Jarin Stevenson had a game-high 32 points for the Hawks.

Concord Academy 52, Richland Northeast 35

Avion Pinner scored 14 points and J.J. Moore added 13 points in the win.

Justice Johnson scored 13 points for the Cavaliers.

Charlotte Country Day 80, Augusta Christian School 71

Dallas Gardner scored 33 points to lead the Buccaneers.

DJ Shine had 22 points for the Lions.