Basketball Game Preview: Croatan Cougars vs. Montgomery Central Timberwolves

The Croatan Cougars will square off against the Montgomery Central Timberwolves on Thursday. Croatan will be looking to extend their current 15-game winning streak.

On Friday, Croatan earned a 26-16 win over Northside - Jacksonville. Given the Cougars' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 61st, while the Monarchs are ranked 243rd) , the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Neely McMannen

Three Point Percentage (Career)

02/20/26 vs Northside - Jacksonville	80%
02/11/25 vs Richlands	75%
01/27/26 @ West Carteret	67%
12/05/25 @ Cape Hatteras Secondary	67%
02/13/25 @ West Carteret	63%

Neely McMannen and Leah Johnson were among the main playmakers for Croatan as the former went 5-for-9 en route to 14 points and three steals and the latter posted six points in addition to five rebounds and four blocks. The dominant performance also gave McMannen a new career-high in three-point shooting accuracy (80%).

Meanwhile, it can be hard to translate regular season success to the playoffs, but Montgomery Central had no problem doing just that on Tuesday. They snuck past the Bulldogs with a 41-36 victory.

Croatan's win bumped their record up to 22-3. As for Montgomery Central, their victory bumped their record up to 10-15.