Basketball Game Preview: Northeastern Jets vs. West Jefferson Roughriders

The Northeastern Jets will take on the West Jefferson Roughriders at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Northeastern knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past five games -- so hopefully West Jefferson likes a good challenge.

It was a classic East v. West duel when Northeastern faced off against Northwestern on Saturday. Northeastern fell just short of Northwestern by a score of 76-73. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Friday (61), the Jets still had to take the loss.

Meanwhile, even if it wasn't a dominant performance, West Jefferson beat Catholic Central 66-60 on Wednesday.

West Jefferson's win came from a few key players Northeastern will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Austin Buescher, who almost dropped a double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds. He has become a key player for West Jefferson: the team is 3-1 when he posts at least 20 points, but 7-10 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Nick Fitzpatrick, who went 6-for-14 on his way to 13 points and six boards.

West Jefferson was working as a unit and finished the game with 23 assists. That's the most assists they've managed all season.

Northeastern's defeat ended a three-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 9-12. The wins came thanks in part to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 69.0 points over those games. As for West Jefferson, their win bumped their record up to 10-11.

Everything went Northeastern's way against West Jefferson in their previous matchup back in January, as Northeastern made off with a 74-54 victory. Will Northeastern repeat their success, or does West Jefferson have a new game plan this time around? We'll find out soon enough.