Basketball Preview: Croatan Cougars vs. East Carteret Mariners
The Croatan Cougars just played yesterday, but they'll still head out to face the East Carteret Mariners at 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Croatan will be strutting in after a victory while East Carteret will be coming in after a defeat.
It was a proper cat-fight when Croatan challenged East Duplin on Tuesday. The Cougars put the hurt on the Panthers with a sharp 70-48 win. The game was all but wrapped up at the end of the third, by which point the Cougars had established a 21-point advantage.
Kannon McBride
| 12/02/25 vs East Duplin | 24 |
| 02/28/25 @ J.H. Rose | 26 |
| 02/25/25 vs Hunt | 28 |
| 02/21/25 vs West Carteret | 27 |
| 02/18/25 @ Richlands | 25 |
| + 4 more games |
Croatan's success was spearheaded by the efforts of Kannon McBride, who went 10-for-19 to rack up 24 points in addition to five assists and five steals, and Gavin Zheng, who shot 71% from the field on his way to 16 points along with six assists and four steals. McBride's evening made it nine games in a row in which he has scored at least 16 points. Matthew Crittenden was another key player, putting up ten points and seven blocks.
Meanwhile, East Carteret was not able to break out of their rough patch on Tuesday as the team picked up their third straight loss. They were six points away from ending the streak, but they lost a 46-40 heartbreaker at the hands of West Craven. The contest was a 22-22 toss-up at halftime, but the Mariners couldn't quite close it out.
The victory made it two in a row for Croatan and bumps their season record up to 2-1. Those wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 62.5 points over those games. As for East Carteret, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-3.
Everything came up roses for Croatan against East Carteret in their previous meeting back in December of 2024, as the squad secured an 82-36 victory. In that matchup, the Cougars amassed a halftime lead of 45-16, an impressive feat they'll look to repeat on Wednesday.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
