Basketball Game Preview: Asheville Cougars vs. Erwin Warriors

Asheville is 8-2 against Erwin since February of 2021 and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Tuesday. The Asheville Cougars are taking a road trip to take on the Erwin Warriors at 6:30 p.m. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.

Having struggled with four losses in a row, Asheville turned things around against Madison on Wednesday. They claimed a resounding 66-35 win over the Patriots. Given the Cougars' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 182nd, while the Patriots are ranked 414th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Asheville's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Zaryah Tucker, who went 11 of 17 en route to 27 points, and Hayziah Dillingham, who posted seven points in addition to 13 assists and eight steals. The dominant performance gave Dillingham a new career-high in assists. Andie Jones was another key player, putting up four points and four steals.

They weren't the only one working in the assists department: Asheville was working as a unit and finished the game with 22 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

Meanwhile, Erwin took their match on Friday with ease, bagging a 68-39 victory over Enka. The Warriors have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won nine games by 20 points or more this season.

Erwin has also been performing incredibly well recently as they've won seven of their last eight contests, which provided a nice bump to their 15-4 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 53.8 points per game. As for Asheville, they now have a winning record of 9-8.

Asheville and Erwin were neck-and-neck in their previous meeting on January 3rd, but Asheville came up empty-handed after a 51-50 defeat. Can Asheville avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.