The Northeastern Knights will face off against the New Castle Trojans at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (Northeastern has nine straight wins, New Castle has six straight defeats), but none of that matters once you're on the court.
Northeastern picked up another tournament win on Saturday. They came out on top against Union County by a score of 64-54. Given the Knights' advantage in MaxPreps' Indiana basketball rankings (they are ranked 30th, while the Patriots are ranked 280th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
| 12/28/24 vs Union County | 4 |
| 12/27/24 @ Alexandria-Monroe | 2 |
| 12/27/24 @ Austin | 0 |
| 12/20/24 @ Shenandoah | 3 |
| 12/13/24 vs Eastern Hancock | 4 |
Noah Payne continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 10 of 12 en route to 25 points and four steals. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 2.1 steals per game. The team also got some help courtesy of Landon Scarrette, who posted 11 points and seven assists.
Meanwhile, New Castle played a tough matchup last Friday in which they were outscored in every quarter. They had to suffer through a 73-43 loss at the hands of New Palestine. The Trojans were in a tough position after the first half, with the score already sitting at 39-18.
Northeastern will have to contain Landon Thompson as he made an impact in New Castle's last game. He dropped a double-double on 20 points and 12 boards.
Even though they lost, New Castle smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with ten offensive rebounds. That's the most offensive boards they've managed all season.
New Castle's loss dropped their record down to 1-6. As for Northeastern, their victory bumped their record up to 9-0.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: Northeastern has been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 30.6 rebounds per game. However, it's not like New Castle struggles in that department as they've been averaging 24.3 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
Northeastern couldn't quite finish off New Castle in their previous meeting back in December of 2022 and fell 46-44. Can Northeastern avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
