Preview: North Johnston Panthers vs. Beddingfield Bruins
North Johnston is 8-2 against Beddingfield since January of 2020, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Wednesday. The North Johnston Panthers will look to defend their home court against the Beddingfield Bruins at 6:00 p.m. North Johnston will be looking to keep their 14-game home win streak (dating back to last season) alive.
North Johnston stacked a tenth blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Friday. They blew past Princeton 64-36 on the road. Given North Johnston's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 150th, while Princeton is ranked 565th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
North Johnston's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Ayden Pone led the charge by scoring 12 points along with three blocks. It was the first time this season that Pone posted two or more blocks. Another player making a difference was Cory Barnes, who scored nine points along with five rebounds and two steals.
Beddingfield aren't just finding sucess at home, as their game on Monday extended their overall winning streak to four. Everything went their way against Spring Creek as Beddingfield made off with a 74-48 victory.
Among those leading the charge was Jhion Ashby, who scored 20 points. He is on a roll when it comes to points, as he's now scored 16 or more in the last three games he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Jayonta Blanchard, who scored 11 points.
North Johnston is on a roll lately: they've won 13 of their last 14 matchups, which provided a nice bump to their 20-3 record this season. As for Beddingfield, their victory bumped their record up to 17-7.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as the two teams are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. North Johnston hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 64.9 points per game. However, it's not like Beddingfield struggles in that department as they've been averaging 58.5 points per game. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
North Johnston came out on top in a nail-biter against Beddingfield when the teams last played on February 6th, sneaking past 75-72. Will North Johnston repeat their success, or does Beddingfield have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
