Preview: Berry Cardinal vs. South Mecklenburg Sabres
Berry is 1-9 against South Mecklenburg since February of 2019 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Monday. The Berry Cardinal will head out on the road to square off against the South Mecklenburg Sabres at 6:00 p.m. The pair have had a bumpy ride up to this point with eight consecutive losses for Berry and three for South Mecklenburg.
Last Friday, Berry was just a bucket shy of victory and fell 43-42 to Olympic.
Despite the defeat, Berry got a solid performance out of Zahnia Long, who scored 22 points along with five steals. Parker Breelove was another key contributor, scoring 11 points along with five rebounds and two steals.
Meanwhile, South Mecklenburg struggled with assists on Friday (Myers Park had eight more) and sadly the final score reflected it. South Mecklenburg took a serious blow against Myers Park, falling 78-47. While losing is never fun, South Mecklenburg can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 137th, while Myers Park is ranked tenth).
Despite the defeat, South Mecklenburg saw an underclassman step up: Kaitlyn Hensley scored eight points along with three steals. Another player making a difference was Hope Kluttz, who scored six points along with five rebounds.
Berry dropped their record down to 2-18 with that loss, which was their 12th straight at home dating back to last season. That rough patch could be blamed on the team's offensive performance across that stretch, as they only averaged 27.8 points per game. As for South Mecklenburg, they have been struggling recently as they've lost four of their last five contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 12-12 record this season.
This contest is one where the number of possessions is likely to be a big factor: Berry have been smashing the glass this season, having averaged 22.4 rebounds per game. However, it's not like South Mecklenburg struggles in that department as they've been averaging 28.6 rebounds per game. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Berry was taken down by South Mecklenburg 61-30 in their previous meeting back in January. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of South Mecklenburg's Makailah Davis, who scored 23 points along with six rebounds and three steals. Now that Berry knows the damage she can cause, will they be able to stop her this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
