Basketball Game Preview: Midway Raiders vs. St. Pauls Bulldogs

Midway is 1-7 against St. Pauls since January of 2022 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Midway Raiders will host the St. Pauls Bulldogs at 7:30 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.

Midway will bounce into Friday's match after beating Red Springs, who they had gone 1-7 against in their eight prior meetings. Midway walked away with a 56-46 victory over Red Springs on Tuesday. Given the Raiders' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 281st, while the Red Devils are ranked 652nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask St. Pauls). They were the clear victor by an 83-63 margin over Clinton on Tuesday. The Bulldogs haven't had any issues with the Dark Horses recently, as the game was their eighth consecutive win against them.

Midway's victory was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 14-5. Those victories came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 59.0 points over those games. As for St. Pauls, their win bumped their record up to 6-15.

Everything went Midway's way against St. Pauls in their previous matchup back in January, as Midway made off with a 69-49 victory. Will Midway repeat their success, or does St. Pauls have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.