Basketball Game Preview: South Lenoir Blue Devils vs. Kinston Vikings

South Lenoir hasn't had much luck against Kinston recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The South Lenoir Blue Devils will welcome the Kinston Vikings at 7:00 p.m.

South Lenoir will head into Monday's matchup out to bounce back: they won a close one the last time they played, but unfortunately they suffered a serious change of fortune on Monday. They were beaten by Ayden - Grifton 85-49.

Meanwhile, Kinston waltzed into their contest on Saturday with two straight wins... but they left with three. They walked away with a 61-53 victory over the Cougars. Given the Vikings' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 51st, while the Cougars are ranked 236th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Kinston pushed their record up to 10-3 with the win, which was their eighth straight at home. As for South Lenoir, they now have a losing record at 7-8.

South Lenoir was taken down by Kinston 72-42 in their previous matchup on January 3rd. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point South Lenoir was down 40-17.