Basketball Game Preview: Freedom Patriots vs. Hickory Red Tornadoes

The Freedom Patriots will head out on the road to challenge the Hickory Red Tornadoes at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday. Freedom knows how to get points on the board -- the team has finished with 55 points or more in their past five games -- so hopefully Hickory likes a good challenge.

Last Friday, Freedom was fully in charge, breezing past Alexander Central 72-44. Given the Patriots' advantage in MaxPreps' North Carolina basketball rankings (they are ranked 106th, while the Cougars are ranked 269th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.

Meanwhile, Hickory lost to North Lincoln on the road by a 89-74 margin on Tuesday. Despite running the score up even higher than they did in their prior game on Friday (73), the Red Tornadoes still had to take the loss.

Hickory has been struggling recently as they've lost three of their last four contests, which put a noticeable dent in their 9-4 record this season. As for Freedom, they are on a roll lately: they've won ten of their last 12 matches, which provided a nice bump to their 14-3 record this season.

Freedom was taken down by Hickory 77-44 when the teams last played back in December of 2023. That game was all but decided by halftime, at which point Freedom was down 37-15.