Basketball Game Preview: West Iredell Warriors vs. St. Stephens Indians

West Iredell hasn't had much luck against St. Stephens recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The West Iredell Warriors will be home for the holidays to greet the St. Stephens Indians at 7:30 p.m. West Iredell knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past seven matches -- so hopefully St. Stephens likes a good challenge.

West Iredell is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They claimed a resounding 94-65 win over Wilkes Central. While the Warriors didn't have the best season last year (they finished 2-22), it's starting to look like those struggles are a thing of the past.

Jordan Patterson continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, going 15 of 25 on his way to 40 points along with seven boards and four steals. His evening made it seven games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of David Bunton, who went 5 of 10 en route to 10 points.

West Iredell was working as a unit and finished the game with 22 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

Meanwhile, St. Stephens didn't have quite enough to beat South Caldwell on Friday and fell 67-64. While losing is never fun, the Indians can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 315th, while the Spartans are ranked 74th).

West Iredell will have to keep a close watch on Javian White and Noah Vanbeurden, a pair of players who had a big impact on St. Stephens' prior game. White went 6 of 11 from beyond the arc on his way to 34 points, while Vanbeurden went 9 of 17 on his way to 22 points. White is becoming a predictor of St. Stephens' success: when he posts at least 20 points the team is 2-1 (and 1-3 when he doesn't).

West Iredell's victory was their fourth straight at home, which pushed their record up to 6-1. As for St. Stephens, they now have a losing record at 3-4.

West Iredell was taken down by St. Stephens 86-41 in their previous meeting back in January. That contest was all but decided by halftime, at which point West Iredell was down 47-21.