Basketball Game Preview: Harding University Rams vs. Hopewell Titans

The Harding University Rams will take on the Hopewell Titans in a holiday battle at at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. The squads are rolling into the game with opposing streaks: Harding University has struggled recently with five losses in a row, while Hopewell will arrive with six straight wins.

Harding University will face Hopewell after dropping another heartbreaker against Olympic on Saturday, which marked the second time in a row the team's come within 3.1 of beating them. Harding University fell just short of Olympic by a score of 59-57. While losing is never fun, the Rams can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 332nd, while the Trojans are ranked 82nd).

Meanwhile, it may have taken overtime to finish the job, but Hopewell ultimately got the result they hoped for on Friday. They snuck past Hickory Ridge with a 71-65 victory.

Hopewell's win was their third straight on the road, which pushed their record up to 6-0. As for Harding University, their defeat dropped their record down to 1-5.

Harding University came up short against Hopewell in their previous meeting back in January, falling 76-64. Thankfully for Harding University, Quay Watson (who went 12 of 22 en route to 29 points along with seven steals and five boards) won't be suiting up this time. Will that be enough to change the final result? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.