Basketball Game Preview: Jackson South Side Hawks vs. Haywood Tomcats

Jackson South Side and Haywood are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2020, but not for long. The Jackson South Side Hawks will host the Haywood Tomcats at 7:30 p.m. on Friday.

Jackson South Side is probably headed into the matchup with a chip on their shoulder considering Dyersburg just ended the team's three-game winning streak on Friday. They came up short against the Trojans, falling 56-36. The contest marked the Hawks' lowest-scoring game so far this season.

Meanwhile, Haywood had already won two in a row (a stretch where they outscored their opponents by an average of 35.5 points) and they went ahead and made it three on Tuesday. In a tight matchup that could have gone either way, they made off with a 71-70 victory over the Indians. The win was all the more spectacular given the Tomcats' disadvantage in MaxPreps' Tennessee basketball rankings (they are ranked 182nd, while the Indians are ranked 37th).

Jackson South Side's defeat dropped their record down to 5-2. As for Haywood, their victory bumped their record up to 4-7.

Jackson South Side was able to grind out a solid win over Haywood in their previous meeting two weeks ago, winning 79-70. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Haywood's Lekenndric Watkins, who went 13 for 22 on his way to 31 points in addition to seven rebounds and five assists. Now that he's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Jackson South Side still be able to contain Watkins? There's only one way to find out.