Basketball Game Preview: Rock Hill Bearcats vs. Northwestern Trojans

Rock Hill is 1-9 against Northwestern since January of 2020 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Tuesday. The Rock Hill Bearcats are taking a road trip to challenge the Northwestern Trojans at 7:45 p.m. Rock Hill is strutting in with some offensive muscle as they've averaged 58.7 points per game this season.

Rock Hill took a loss when they played away from home on Tuesday, but their home fans gave them all the motivation they needed on Thursday. They came out on top against Nation Ford by a score of 65-57.

Kyriq Dickens was nothing short of spectacular: he went 7 of 13 en route to 23 points and seven rebounds. That's the most rebounds he has posted since back in January of 2024. The team also got some help courtesy of Collin Mckellar, who posted 14 points and three steals.

Rock Hill smashed the offensive glass and finished the game with 19 offensive rebounds. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now pulled down at least 11 offensive boards in five consecutive matches.

Meanwhile, Northwestern played a tough game on Thursday in which they were outscored in every quarter. They came up short against Fort Mill, falling 62-37. While losing is never fun, the Trojans can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' South Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 118th, while the Yellow Jackets are ranked 11th).

Northwestern's defeat was their seventh straight on the road dating back to last season, which dropped their record down to 4-10. As for Rock Hill, their victory was their first in the region, bumping their region record up to 1-3 and their overall record up to 6-9.

Rock Hill and Northwestern were neck-and-neck in their previous meeting back in January of 2024, but Rock Hill came up empty-handed after a 46-45 loss. Can Rock Hill avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.