Preview: Carrboro Jaguars vs. Granville Central Panthers
The Carrboro Jaguars will be playing in front of their home fans against the Granville Central Panthers at 8:00 p.m. on Friday. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the pair will really light up the scoreboard.
Carrboro suffered their biggest defeat since December 15, 2023 on Tuesday. They ended up on the wrong side of a tough 96-71 walloping at the hands of South Granville. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their last game on Friday (57), Carrboro still had to take the loss.
Despite the loss, Carrboro had strong showings from Brody Gagne, who scored 20 points along with two steals and two blocks, and Bakari Watkins, who scored 12 points along with six rebounds and two blocks. Gagne's trending in the right direction, as he's improved his point production for four games straight. Myles Gary was another key contributor, scoring nine points.
Meanwhile, Granville Central had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 16 points), and they went ahead and made it three on Wednesday. They were the clear victor by a 62-40 margin over Vance County. Given Granville Central's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 189th, while Vance County is ranked 464th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Carrboro's defeat dropped their record down to 8-8. As for Granville Central, their victory was their fourth straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 11-5.
Carrboro came up short against Granville Central in their previous matchup back in February of 2023, falling 60-49. Can Carrboro avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
