Basketball Game Preview: Hillside Hornets vs. Chapel Hill Tigers

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Previous Games

02/11/25 - Home	31-61 L
01/25/25 - Away	38-73 L
02/23/24 - Away	40-56 L
02/13/24 - Away	46-78 L
01/23/24 - Home	42-51 L
+ 5 more games

Hillside and Chapel Hill are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2022, but not for long. The Hillside Hornets just played yesterday, but they'll still head out to face the Chapel Hill Tigers at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The two teams are strolling into their matchups after big wins in their previous games.

Hillside is headed into the game after thoroughly thrashing Riverside-Durham: they outscored them in every quarter. Given that consistent dominance, it should come as no surprise that Hillside blew Riverside-Durham out of the water with a 55-15 final score. The contest was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Hornets had established a 31 point advantage.

Meanwhile, Chapel Hill came tearing into Friday's match with 11 straight wins (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 35.8 points), and they left with even more momentum. They blew past the Wildcats 61-19. Given the Tigers' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 57th, while the Wildcats are ranked 392nd), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Chapel Hill's win came from a few key players Hillside will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Scarlett Gilner, who dropped a double-double with 13 points and ten rebounds. She has been hot, having also posted two or more steals the last six times she's played. Dezariyah Clark was another key player, putting up six points along with seven assists and five steals.

Chapel Hill pushed their record up to 21-3 with the win, which was their sixth straight on the road. Those victories came thanks in part to their defensive effort, having only surrendered 20.7 points over those games. As for Hillside, they have been performing well recently as they've won six of their last eight games, which provided a nice bump to their 8-15 record this season.

Hillside took a serious blow against Chapel Hill in their previous meeting on Tuesday, falling 61-31. Can Hillside avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.