Basketball Game Preview: Cummings Cavaliers vs. Chatham Central Bears

The Cummings Cavaliers will challenge the Chatham Central Bears at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Last Thursday, Cummings took a blow against Northeast Guilford, falling 60-32. While losing is never fun, the Cavaliers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 489th, while the Rams are ranked 158th).

Meanwhile, Chatham Central had already won four in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 16.3 points) and they went ahead and made it five on Friday. Everything went their way against the Red Devils as they made off with an 81-59 win.

Chatham Central had a senior duo take command as Reid Albright dropped a double-double on 31 points and 11 boards and Brennen Oldham went 7 of 13 on his way to 18 points in addition to eight assists and seven rebounds. Albright has been hot for a while, having also posted three or more steals the last 38 times he's played. Another player making a difference was Luke Gaines, who posted ten points along with five assists and three steals.

Chatham Central was working as a unit and finished the game with 27 assists. That's the most assists they've posted since back in February of 2024.

Chatham Central pushed their record up to 15-2 with the victory, which was their seventh straight at home. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.6 points per game. As for Cummings, they have traveled a rocky road recently having lost eight of their last nine contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 5-12 record this season.

Things could have been worse for Cummings, but things could have been a whole lot better as they took a 55-38 loss to Chatham Central in their previous meeting back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Albright, who dropped a double-double on 24 points and 11 rebounds. Now that Cummings knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? There's only one way to find out.