Basketball Game Preview: Southwest Patriots vs. Northeast Raiders

Southwest is 2-8 against Northeast since January of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Southwest Patriots and the Northeast Raiders will meet in a classic North v. South matchup at 7:30 p.m. Southwest is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 64.4 points per game this season.

Southwest will bounce into Tuesday's match after beating Westside, who they had gone 2-7 against in their nine prior meetings. Southwest came out on top against Westside by a score of 69-56 on Saturday. Given the Patriots' advantage in MaxPreps' Georgia basketball rankings (they are ranked 44th, while the Seminoles are ranked 195th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

C.J. Howard

Points (Career)

01/18/25 @ Westside	23
01/03/25 vs Dodge County	20
12/13/24 @ Dublin	20
12/28/24 @ Jones County	19
11/16/24 vs Laney	17

Southwest can attribute much of their success to Chase Dupree, who went 10 for 19 en route to 25 points and seven assists, and C.J. Howard, who went 9 of 20 on his way to 23 points along with seven boards and five assists. Those 23 points gave Howard a new career-high. Brandon Ashley was another key player, putting up seven points in addition to seven assists and three steals.

They weren't the only one working in the assists department: Southwest was working as a unit and finished the game with 22 assists. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Westside only racked up 12 assists.

Meanwhile, Northeast was not able to break out of their rough patch on Saturday as the team picked up their fifth straight defeat. They fell 51-41 to Jasper County.

Southwest's win was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 15-2. Those victories came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 68.0 points per game. As for Northeast, their loss dropped their record down to 2-15.

Southwest strolled past Northeast in their previous meeting back in January of 2024 by a score of 77-60. Will Southwest repeat their success, or does Northeast have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.