Preview: Hoke County Bucks vs. Pinecrest Patriots
Hoke County is 0-10 against Pinecrest since January of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The Hoke County Bucks will head out on the road to challenge the Pinecrest Patriots at 6:00 p.m. Hopefully Hoke County focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 21 on Wednesday.
Last Wednesday, Hoke County came up short against Union Pines and fell 51-44. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Hoke County in their matchups with Union Pines: they've now lost nine in a row.
Hoke County's loss shouldn't obscure the performances of Karmen Campbell, who scored 16 points along with five rebounds and three blocks, and Dashinedria Riggins who dropped a double-double on 12 points and 11 rebounds. That's the first time this season that Campbell scored 15 or more points. Julianna Macy was another key contributor, scoring four points along with two blocks.
Even though they lost, Hoke County smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 14 offensive rebounds. This was only their ninth loss (out of 12 games) when they hit their own glass that hard.
Meanwhile, Pinecrest's 15-7 record from last season is now well into the rear view mirror after another tough outing. They took a 57-43 bruising from Scotland on Tuesday. While losing is never fun, Pinecrest can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 361st, while Scotland is ranked 141st).
Hoke County has not been sharp recently, as they've lost nine of their last 11 matches, which put a noticeable dent in their 3-12 record this season. As for Pinecrest, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 4-10.
Hoke County was dealt a bruising 68-41 loss at the hands of Pinecrest in their previous matchup back in February of 2023. The matchup was all but decided by halftime, at which point Hoke County was down 44-24.
