Basketball Game Preview: Fuquay - Varina Bengals vs. Garner Trojans

The Fuquay - Varina Bengals are taking a road trip to take on the Garner Trojans at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday. Fuquay - Varina has a tough task ahead: they'll enter the matchup with nine straight losses, while Garner will come in with ten straight wins.

Last Tuesday, Fuquay - Varina was within striking distance but couldn't close the gap as they fell 68-63 to Cleveland. While losing is never fun, the Bengals can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 379th, while the Rams are ranked 69th).

Abdou Diop

Points

01/28/25 vs Cleveland	28
01/27/25 @ Clayton	25
01/24/25 @ Southeast Raleigh	25
01/17/25 @ Willow Spring	25

Fuquay - Varina might have lost, but man, Abdou Diop was a machine: he went 10 of 21 on his way to 28 points. Diop's evening made it four games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Nathan Mathew, who went 6 for 10 en route to 16 points and seven rebounds.

Even though they lost, Fuquay - Varina was working as a unit and finished the game with 12 assists. This was only their 12th loss (out of 15 games) when they've passed the ball that well.

Meanwhile, Garner didn't have too much breathing room in their game against Clayton on Friday, but they still walked away with a 57-52 victory.

Garner pushed their record up to 17-2 with the win, which was their 17th straight at home dating back to last season. The wins came thanks to their offensive performance across that stretch, as they averaged 73.0 points per game. As for Fuquay - Varina, their defeat dropped their record down to 3-16.

Fuquay - Varina suffered a grim 70-46 defeat to Garner when the teams last played back in January. Can Fuquay - Varina avenge their loss or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.