Basketball Game Preview: Neshoba Central Rockets vs. Northeast Lauderdale Trojans

Neshoba Central has gone 8-2 against Northeast Lauderdale recently and they'll look to pad the win column further on Tuesday. The Rockets will be playing at home against the Trojans at 7:30 p.m. The timing is sure in Neshoba Central's favor as the squad sits on three straight wins at home while Northeast Lauderdale has been banged up by six consecutive losses on the road dating back to last season.

Neshoba Central is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They took their game on Saturday with ease, bagging an 80-40 victory over Newton. The matchup was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Rockets had established a 31-point advantage.

Emjae Willis

Steals

12/06/25 @ Newton	11
12/04/25 @ Leake Central	2
11/25/25 vs Laurel	3
11/18/25 @ Meridian	4
11/13/25 @ Choctaw Central	0
+ 3 more games

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Neshoba Central to victory, but perhaps none more so than Emjae Willis, who dropped a double-double with ten assists and 11 steals. With that strong performance, Willis is now averaging an impressive 3 steals per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Kendarius Thomas, who went 9-for-15 to rack up 18 points and five boards.

Neshoba Central smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 17 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 15 offensive boards in three consecutive contests.

Meanwhile, Northeast Lauderdale didn't have quite enough to beat Provine on Saturday and fell 46-43. The game marked the Trojans' lowest-scoring matchup so far this season.

Neshoba Central now has a winning record of 5-4. As for Northeast Lauderdale, their loss dropped their record down to 4-4.

Neshoba Central and Northeast Lauderdale were neck-and-neck when the teams last played back in December of 2024, but Neshoba Central came up empty-handed after an 86-85 defeat. Thankfully for the Rockets, Troy Brown (who dropped a double-double with 31 points and 24 rebounds) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? There's only one way to find out.