Preview: Chapel Hill Tigers vs. Franklin Academy Patriots
Two dominant in David Mirikwe and Hayes Lewis are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Chapel Hill Tigers and the Franklin Academy Patriots will round out the year against one another at 4:00 p.m. on Wednesday at. Chapel Hill will be looking to extend their current seven-game winning streak.
Even though Eastern Alamance scored an imposing 63 points last Friday, Chapel Hill still came out on top. Chapel Hill narrowly escaped with a victory as the squad sidled past Eastern Alamance 65-63. Given Chapel Hill's advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 39th, while Eastern Alamance is ranked 211th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Mirikwe was his usual excellent self, scoring 28 points along with five rebounds and four steals. That makes it nine consecutive games in which he has scored at least 25% of Chapel Hill's points. Franklin Johnson was another key contributor, dropping a double-double on 17 points and 11 rebounds.
Meanwhile, after a string of three wins, Franklin Academy's good fortune finally ran out on Tuesday. They took a hard 69-53 fall against North Johnston. The defeat unfortunately continues a disappointing trend for Franklin Academy in their matchups with North Johnston: they've now lost four in a row.
The losing side was boosted by Tyler Pace, who scored 18 points. The match was his sixth in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Lewis, who scored 11 points along with seven rebounds and six assists.
Chapel Hill pushed their record up to 8-1 with that victory, which was their sixth straight on the road. Those good results were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.2 points per game. As for Franklin Academy, their defeat dropped their record down to 8-5.
Keep an eye on the arc in Wednesday's match: Chapel Hill have made nailing deep shots look easy this year this season, having only averaged 4.3 threes per game. It's a different story for Franklin Academy, though, as they've been averaging only 7.3 threes per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out. Check MaxPreps after the match for a full breakdown of the game, commentary, and other basketball content.
