St. Stephens hasn't had much luck against East Lincoln recently, but that could start to change on Tuesday. The St. Stephens Indians will host the East Lincoln Mustangs at 7:45 p.m. Expect the scorekeeper to be kept busy: if their previous games are any indication, the two teams will really light up the scoreboard.
Last Thursday, St. Stephens came up short against North Lincoln and fell 74-65. While losing is never fun, the Indians can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 334th, while the Knights are ranked 147th).
The match pitted two dominant guards against one another in Javian White and Kellen Karr. Karr had a great game and dropped a double-double on 22 points and 18 rebounds. Meanwhile, White did his best for the losing side, going 6 of 10 on his way to 17 points and six rebounds.
Meanwhile, East Lincoln entered their tilt with Foard on Thursday with six consecutive wins but they'll enter their next game with seven. They claimed a resounding 81-41 victory over the Tigers. The Mustangs have made a habit of sweeping their opponents off the court, having now won seven games by 21 points or more this season.
East Lincoln's win came from a few key players St. Stephens will need to keep an eye on. One of the most notable was Jaxon Dollar, who went 9 of 13 on his way to 20 points along with seven rebounds and five assists. His evening made it three games in a row in which he has scored at least ten points. The team also got some help courtesy of Jackson Fannon, who posted 17 points and six rebounds.
East Lincoln was working as a unit and finished the game with 28 assists. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now racked up at least 28 assists in three consecutive matchups.
This is the second loss in a row for St. Stephens and nudges their season record down to 5-9. As for East Lincoln, they are on a roll lately: they've won nine of their last ten contests, which provided a nice bump to their 11-3 record this season.
Rebounding is likely to be a big factor in this contest: St. Stephens has crashing the boards this season, having averaged 25.7 boards per game. However, it's not like East Lincoln struggles in that department as they've been averaging 34.7 boards. With both teams battling to corral missed shots, we'll see if one team can grab an edge.
St. Stephens lost to East Lincoln at home by a decisive 69-53 margin when the teams last played back in February of 2024. Can St. Stephens avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
