Preview: Hickory Red Tornadoes vs. St. Stephens Indians
Hickory is 10-0 against the Indians since February of 2020, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Hickory Red Tornadoes will be playing at home against the St. Stephens Indians at 7:30 p.m. Each of these teams will be fighting to keep a win streak alive as Hickory comes in on 19 and the Indians on four.
Hickory stacked an 11th blowout win onto their ever-increasing hoard on Tuesday. They claimed a resounding 88-58 win over North Lincoln at home. Having run the score up that high, both teams probably have some extra defensive drills coming up.
Hickory can attribute much of their success to John Holbrook, who scored 21 points. Izaiah Littlejohn was another key contributor, scoring 12 points.
Even though St. Stephens has not done well against the Raiders recently (they were 0-6 in their previous six matchups), they didn't let the past get in their way on Tuesday. St. Stephens took their contest at home with ease, bagging a 78-50 victory over the Raiders. St. Stephens pushed the score to 60-37 by the end of the third, a deficit the Raiders had little chance of recovering from.
St. Stephens found their leader in underclassman Noah VanBeurden, who scored 23 points along with two steals. VanBeurden has been hot recently, having posted 20 or more points the last three times he's played. The team also got some help courtesy of Jonah Long, who dropped a double-double on 16 points and ten rebounds.
Hickory pushed their record up to 19-0 with that victory, which was their seventh straight at home. Those victories were due in large part to their offensive dominance across that stretch, as they averaged 83.1 points per game. As for St. Stephens, their win bumped their record up to 11-8.
Hickory beat the Indians 84-71 when the teams last played back in January. Does Hickory have another victory up their sleeve, or will the Indians turn the tables on them? We'll have the answer soon enough.
