Two dominant forwards in Kee'Donn Linney and Blake Suttle are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Kings Mountain Mountaineers will take on the East Rutherford Cavaliers in a tournament on Friday. Kings Mountain knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past seven contests -- so hopefully East Rutherford likes a good challenge.
Kings Mountain is headed into the game having just posted their biggest victory since February 9th on Thursday. They put the hurt on Stuart W. Cramer with a sharp 70-45 win. The match was pretty much decided by the half, when the score had already reached 38-9.
Kings Mountain got their victory on the backs of several key players, but it was Linney out in front who went 5 for 10 on his way to 14 points. J'Myun Huskey was another key player, putting up 11 points and five steals.
Kings Mountain smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 13 offensive boards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least nine offensive rebounds in seven consecutive contests.
Meanwhile, East Rutherford ended up a good deal behind Shelby on Wednesday and lost 60-46. The game marked the Cavaliers' lowest-scoring match so far this season.
Kings Mountain will need focus on slowing down Suttle, one of several East Rutherford players who made an impact when they last played. He dropped a double-double on ten points and 16 rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Matthew Pinkerton, who posted ten points and three steals.
Kings Mountain's win bumped their record up to 5-2. As for East Rutherford, this is the second loss in a row for them and nudges their season record down to 2-7.
Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as both are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. Kings Mountain hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 65.3 points per game. However, it's not like East Rutherford struggles in that department as they've been averaging 61 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.
Kings Mountain was able to grind out a solid victory over East Rutherford in their previous meeting back in December of 2022, winning 61-53. Does Kings Mountain have another victory up their sleeve, or will East Rutherford turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
