Basketball Game Preview: West Iredell Warriors vs. East Lincoln Mustangs

West Iredell hasn't had much luck against East Lincoln recently, but that could start to change on Friday. The West Iredell Warriors will host the East Lincoln Mustangs at 7:30 p.m. West Iredell knows how to get points on the board -- the squad has finished with 55 points or more in their past six matches -- so hopefully East Lincoln likes a good challenge.

Having struggled with six defeats in a row, West Iredell turned things around against Foard on Tuesday. They walked away with a 72-60 win over the Tigers.

It was another big night for Jordan Patterson, who went 12 of 15 on his way to 33 points in addition to six boards and three steals. His evening made it 19 games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Jermaine Cornelius, who posted 13 points and three steals.

Meanwhile, there's no place like home for East Lincoln, who bounced back after a loss on the road on Friday. They came out on top against Statesville by a score of 77-64 on Tuesday.

East Lincoln's win came from a few key players West Iredell will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Jackson Fannon, who almost dropped a double-double on 17 points and nine rebounds. Gaige Ikard was another key player, almost dropping a double-double on ten points and nine assists.

East Lincoln is on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 12 contests, which provided a nice bump to their 14-5 record this season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 76.8 points per game. As for West Iredell, they now have a winning record of 10-9.

Some high-performance offense is likely on the agenda as West Iredell and East Lincoln are some of the highest scoring teams in the league. West Iredell hasn't had any problem running up the score this season, having averaged 72.5 points per game. However, it's not like East Lincoln struggles in that department as they've been averaging 75.1 points. With both teams so easily able to put up points, the only question left is who can run the score up higher.

West Iredell was dealt a bruising 93-50 loss at the hands of East Lincoln in their previous meeting on January 7th. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point West Iredell was down 52-30.