Basketball Game Preview: North Iredell Raiders vs. Hickory Red Tornadoes

The North Iredell Raiders will head out to challenge the Hickory Red Tornadoes at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday. One thing working in North Iredell's favor is that they have posted at least 55 points in their last four matchups.

North Iredell is probably headed into the contest with a chip on their shoulder considering North Lincoln just ended the team's three-game winning streak on Friday. They took a hard 73-58 fall against the Knights. While losing is never fun, the Raiders can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 143rd, while the Knights are ranked 42nd).

Meanwhile, winning is always nice, but doing so behind a season-high score is even better (just ask Hickory). They simply couldn't be stopped on Friday as they easily beat St. Stephens 68-38. The Red Tornadoes pushed the score to 58-31 by the end of the third, a deficit the Indians had little chance of recovering from.

North Iredell's loss dropped their record down to 13-7. As for Hickory, with the victory, they broke their three-game losing streak and moved their record to 4-12.

North Iredell was able to grind out a solid win over Hickory in their previous meeting back in January, winning 53-42. The rematch might be a little tougher for North Iredell since the squad won't have the home-court advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.